
Class _ 
Book_ 



Tkl 



/ 

ESSAY, ~*>Q 

MEDICAL. PHILOSOPHICAL, AND CHEMICAL, 

ON 

DRUNKENNESS, 

AND 

ITS EFFECTS ON THE HUMAN BODY. 

BY THOMAS TROTTEK, M. D. 

LATE PHYSICIAN TO HIS MAJESTY'S FLEET UNDER THE COMMAND 

OF ADMIRAL EARL HOWE, K. G. ; AND TO THE SQUADRONS 

COMMANDED BY ADMIRAL LORD BRIDPORT, K. B. ADMIRAL 

EARL ST. VINCENT, K. B. AND THE HONOURABLE 

ADMIRAL CORNWALLIS ; 

MEMBER OF THE ROYAL MEDICAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH; 

AN HONORARY MEMBER OF THE ROYAL PHYSICAL SOCIETY 

OF EDINBURGH, OF THE MEDICAL SOCIETY OF 

ABERDEEN, OF THE PHILOSOPHICAL AND 

LITERARY SOCIETY OF NEWCASTLE, 

&.c. Sec. 



O ! thou invisible spirit of wine, if thou hast no name to be 
known by, let us call thee— Devil. Shakspearc. 



THE FIRST PHILADELPHIA EDITION, 
CORRECTED AND ENLARGED. 

PHILADELPHIA: 

PUBLISHED BY ANTHONY FINLEY, 

th East Comer of Chesnut and Fourth Streets; sold also by 
E. J. Coale, and J. Cashing-, Baltimore; John lioff, Charleston; 
Seymour and Williams, Savannah ; J. and J. Boyce, Richmond: 
J. 11. Bedford, Nashville; and Crockett and Weisiger* Prank*. 
fcrt.OEj.) 

i Ni'iHriuMmijj i im 

John Bouvier, Printer. 

1813 



! 



DEDICATION 
TO 

BR. JE^NER, 



MY DEAR SIR, 

AFTER having addressed you on the oc- 
casion of your Great Discovery from the 
first medical station in the public service of the 
country, which I had then the honour to hold, 
you will be the less surprised to hear from me in 
my present obscurity. In laying the following 
Essay before the world I feel so independent in 
motive and expectation, that nothing but the 
patronage of Dr. Jenner can satisfy me. I shall 
thus escape the common accusation brought 
against authors of being flatterers. The man 
whose labours go the length of saving annually 
half a million of his fellow-creatures, is as far be- 
yond the sphere of compliment as he has out 
stripped the measure of human gratitude, and can 



(iv) 

need no adulation from my pen. I have, there- 
fore to request that he will accept of all, as a pri- 
vate man, I can offer him, which is to say, with 
all sincerity, 

t am, my dear Sir, 

Your most faithful friend, and 
Most humble servant, 
Xe S 5 tw De T. TROTTER. 



PREFACE. 



WHEN I became a candidate for the degree 
of Doctor of Medicine, in the University of 
Edinburgh, I was rather anxious that the subject 
of my Inaugural Dissertation should be some- 
thing that had never been noticed by any former 
graduate. This was a difficult point ; for scarce- 
ly any thing remained that had not been pre- 
viously discussed. After much consideration, 
however, several objects of inquiry presented 
themselves, and I fixed upon Ebriety. But some 
doubts arose in my mind whether such a thesis 
was proper matter for an academic exercise ; and 
as soon as I was enabled to put it into a regular 
form it was submitted to the judgment of the 
late worthy Dr. Charles Webster. The doctor 
was delighted with the performance, and gave it 
as his opinion that it would be highly acceptable 
to the professors. When my private examina- 
tions were finished, it became the task of Dr, 

A2 



(vi) 
Gregory, now Professor in the Practical Chair, 
to give it his imprimatur. Dr. Gregory perused 
it with great pleasure, and encouraged me to 
think of it as a subject worthy of future investi- 
gation. In the public hall my venerable friend 
and preceptor, Dr. Cullen, was pleased to intro- 
duce my examination with some elegant allusions 
to the thesis ; and after a few facetious remarks 
on the author, in his u^ual style, commended the 
design, execution, and importance of the work. 
I was shortly after this honoured with the thanks 
of the Royal Humane Society, transmitted to me 
by Dr. Hawes, the illustrious founder of that in- 
stitution. Dv. Hawes observed, that, " the in- 
"■ vestigation of so important an inquiry, in a re- 
" gular scientific manner, was never before 
u thought of: it was a subject left, happily left, 
** to be ingeniously executed and amplified by 
«' Dr. Trotter/ 5 

Aiter such testimonies from men at the sum- 
mit of the Medical Profession, it became a task 
o: gratitude, as well as duty, with me, to review 
the Dissertation. From 1788 till lately my 
studies have been entirely occupied by naval af- 
fairs ; and it is only within these few months that 
I began to compile the following Essay, which 
may be considered as a comment on the diesis. 



(vii) 

Dc Ebrietate, ejusque Effectibus in Corpus huma 
num. Edin. 1788. 

The importance of the undertaking will be 
generally acknowledged. It is of a nature that 
must interest every friend of mankind ; and I 
trust it is demonstrated in these pages the share 
which the medical profession ought to take in 
checking the evil habit of intoxication in society. 
How far I am right in the execution of the plan 
others must decide. I shall receive every hint 
for improvement with much satisfaction ; and 
shall correct my errors, wherever they may ap- 
pear, with equal pleasure. 



CONTENTS. 



Dedication, ------ iu 

Preface, ------ v 

Introduction, - - - - 11 

Definition of Drunkenness, - - 17 

Phenomena and Symptoms of Drunkenness, 23 
In what Manner Vinous Spirits affects the 

Body, - - - 39 
The Catalogue of Diseases induced by 

Drunkenness, - - - - - 98 
The Method of correcting the Habit of 

Drunkenness, and of treating the Drunken 

Paroxysm, - 137 



ON DRUNKENNESS, &c. 



INTRODUCTION. 



-Dulce periculum est, 



O Lenaee ? sequi Deura 

Ciugentem viridi tempera pampino. Hor. 



MANKIND, ever in pursuit of pleasure, have 
reluctantly admitted into the catalogue of their 
diseases, those evils which were the immediate 
offspring of their luxuries. Such a reserve is 
indeed natural to the human mind : for of all de- 
viations from the paths of duty, there are none 
that so forcibly impeach their pretentions to the 
character of rational beings as the inordinate use 
of spirituous liquors. Hence, in the writings of 
medicine, we find drunkenness only cursorily 
mentioned among the powers that injure health, 
while the mode ot action is entirely neglected and 
left unexplained. This is the more to be won- 
dered at, as the state of ebriety itself exhibits 
some of the most curious and interesting Pheno- 
mena that are to be met with in the history of an- 



12 

imated nature. The potent stimulus of vinous 
spirit, as if by magical influence, so disturbs, or 
operates on the animal functions, that new affec- 
tions of mind, latent, or unknown before, arc 
produced ; and the drunkard appears to act the 
part of a man of deranged intellect, and altogeth- 
er foreign to the usual terror of his sober reflec- 
tions. 

But a long train of the most dangerous diseases 
are the certain consequence of habitual intoxica- 
tion : the body and mind equally suffer. Sudden 
death, apoplexy, palsy, dropsy, madness, and a 
hideous list of mental disquietudes and nervous 
failings, prey upon the shattered frame of the in- 
ebriate, and prove fatal in the end. These suf- 
ficiently point out the subject as highly impor- 
tant in a medical view, and worthy of the nicest 
investigation. But as I have not any precursor 
in my labours, nor example in the records of 
physic, to direct my steps, I shall need the less 
apology for the manner I mean to pursue ; and 
must claim indulgence where I appear singular 
in my method. 

Most instances of casual or sudden death, 
and suspended animation, have obtained rules 
for recovery ; while the drunkard, exposed in 
the street and highway, or stretched in the 



IS 

kennel, has been allowed to perish, without 
pity and without assistance ; as if his crime 
were inexpiable, and his body infectious to 
the touch. Our newspapers give us too fre- 
quent accounts of this kind. The habit of 
inebriation, so common in society, to be ob- 
served in all ranks and stations of life, and the 
source of inexpressible affliction to friends and 
relatives, has seldom been the object of me- 
dical admonition and practice. The priest- 
hood hath poured forth its anathemas from the 
pulpit; and the moralist, no less severe, hath de- 
claimed against it as a vice degrading to our 
nature. Both have meant well; and becomingly op- 
posed religious and moral arguments to the sinful 
indulgence of animal appetite. But the physical 
influence of custom, confirmed into habit interwo- 
ven with the actions of our sentient system, 
and reacting on our mental part, have been en- 
tirely forgotten. The perfect knowledge of those 
remote causes which first induced the propensity 
to vinous liquors, whether they sprung from situ- 
ation in life, or depended on any peculiar tem- 
perament of body, is also necessary for conduct- 
ing the cure. A due acquaintance with the hu- 
man character will afford much assistance ; for 

the objects of our care are as diversified as the 

B 



14 

varieties of corporeal structure. Pleasure, on 
one hand, presents the poisonous bowl : low spir- 
its, on the other, call for the cheering draught. 
There business and the duties of office have plun- 
ged one man into frequent hard drinking ; while 
cares and misfortunes have goaded on another. 
The soldier and the sailor get drunk-while narra- 
ting the dangers of the battle and the storm : the 
huntsman and the jockey, by describing the joys 
of the chase and the course. Here genius and 
talent are levelled with the dust, in trying to for- 
get, in wine, the outrages of fortune, and the in- 
gratitude of the w T orld ; while more ponderous 
and stupid mortals, in attempting to seek in the 
bottle the feelings and sentiments of exalted 
beings, gravitate to their original clay, or sink 
deeper into their parent mud. 

In treating these various descriptions of persons 
and characters, it will readily appear to a discern- 
ing physician, that very different methods will be 
required. The patient already knows, as well as 
the priest and moralist that the indulgence is per- 
nicious, and ultimately fatal : he is also aware, 
without the reasonings of the physician, that the 
constant repetition will destroy health ; but it is 
not so easy to convince him that you possess a 
charm that can recompence his feelings for the 
want of a grateful stimulus, or bestow on his ne *- 



15 

vous system sensations equally soothing and 
agreeable as he has been accustomed to receive 
from the bewitching spirit. Hie labor ^ hoc opus 
est : this is the difficulty ; this is the task, that is 
to prove your discernment, patience, and address. 
That little has been done hitherto with success, 
we may be assured, by very rarely meeting with 
a reformed drunkard. The habit, carried to a 
certain length, is a gulph, from whose bourne no 
traveller returns: where fame, fortune, hope, 
health, and life perish. 

Amidst the evils which flow from modern 
wars, is to be reckoned the vast consumption of 
spirituous liquors. The tax on distilled spirits 
forms so large a part of finance, and fills up so 
great chasm in the annual budget of any minis- 
ter, who may strive more to retain his place than 
to reform the morals, or check the diseases of his 
countrymen, that we cease to wonder at its con- 
tinuance. A few years ago, the crops of grain 
were so deficient over this island, that thedistilla- 
tion of spirits from malt was prohibited: and 
thus scarcity, bordering on famine, became a bless- 
ing to the human race. But no sooner had fruit- 
ful seasons, and the bounty of Providence, cover- 
ed the earth with plenty, than the first gift of Hea- 
ven, abundance of corn, was again, for the sake 



16 
of taxation, converted into poisonous spirits, by 
opening the stilleries. Might not other taxes be 
devised that would be equally productive ? and 
would it not be a virtuous act of the Legislature 
to abolish the practice for ever ? 

In order to treat my subject philosophically, 
and, for the sake of method, I propose dividing 
it into the following heads, viz. 

1st, Definition of Drunkenness. 

2d, The Phenomena, or Symptoms of 
Drunkenness. 

3d, In what Manner Vinous Spirit affects 
the living Body. 

4th, The Catalogue of Diseases induced by 
Drunkenness. And, 

5th, The Method of correcting the Habit of 
Drunkenness, and of treating the Drunken 
Paroxysm. 

Into these heads I shall occasionally introduce 
such practical remarks as may arise out of the 
subjects; but which are too desultory for metho- 
dical arrangement. 



17 

CHAP. I 

Definition of Drunkenness. 



0\ thoti invisible ipirit of wine, if thou hast no name to be known by let us call 
t | ie€ Devil ! S/iakspeare. 



IN medical language, I consider drunkenness, 
strictly speaking, to be a disease ; produced by 
a remote cause, and giving birth to actions and 
movements in the living body, that disorder the 
functions of health. This being the case, besides 
the value of an accurate definition for the sake 
of system, it may be of some practical utility to 
point out the affinity which the paroxysm has 
with other affections. In assigning the charac- 
ter formerly, I was well aware of the difficulty of 
fixing any symptom, or even concourse of symp- 
toms, that are invariably present. For this rea- 
son delirium seemed to be the most certain, as 
it is the most prominent and general. But ob- 
jections may yet be made to this ; for difference 
of age, and varieties of temperament and consti- 
tution, influence the accession and progress of 
wavering intellect during intoxication. Again, 
although the animal functions are evidently dc- 

B2 



13 
ranged, exhibited by all the shades and grada- 
tions of delirium, such as imbecility- of mind or 
fatuity, erroneous judgment, imaginary percep- 
tions, false relations, violent emotions called ra- 
vings, &c. yet at the same time, the paroxysm 
is so generally attended with a partial or total 
abolition of the powers of sense and motion; that 
it assumes very much the nature of a comatose 
condition. Indeed the most frequent fatal ter- 
mination of the drunken fit is apoplexy. It is 
certainly no uncommon occurrence to see an 
inebriate who can neither walk or speak, exercise 
so considerable a degree of mental power, as to 
recollect every circumstance that passes ; yet so 
conscious of his inability to move without stag- 
gering, that he cunningly watches the opportu- 
nity, when unperceived by his companions, to 
take his leave. The character of this disease 
therefore, partakes both of delirium and coma. 

To avoid confusion, I take the remote cause 
into my definition. Drunkenness is the delirium 
occasioned by fermented liquors. It is true that 
other narcotics, particularly opium and bang, pro- 
duce nearly the same phenomena, and their ha- 
bitual use almost the same diseases ; yet, for ob- 
vious reasons, the chief of which is the common 
occurrence of drunkenness in this country, I am 



19 

induced to separate them here, and consider ttvi$ 
subject by itself. — Our definition is briefly this: 

Post Vinun immobice assumptum, De- 
lirium et Coma. — Which may be thus trans- 
lated : — " Imbecility of intellect, erroneous judg- 
" ment, violent emotions ; and loss of sense and 
" motion after the immoderate use of vinous li~ 
"quors." 

The Latin word " Vinum," has been prefer- 
red as being the most concise, and best convey- 
ing the meaning of vinous spirit, the product of 
fermentation, and on which the inebriating pow- 
er of all fermented liquors depends ; such as 
wine, malt-liquors, cyder, perry, mum, mead, 
koumiss, &c. all of which by distillation yield 
" alkohol." 

The carbonic acid gas> or fixed air, which is 
evolved in great quantity during the vinous fer- 
mentation, that gives a sparkling and pungency 
to certain liquors, such as champaigne, bottled 
beer and cyder, is known to produce a kind of 
stupefaction resembling intoxication, independent 
of the spirit. This kind of ebriety is but mo- 
mentary ; as the action of the gas on the nerves 
of the stomach is of short duration. Very differ- 
ent are the effects of this gas when breathed. 
Brewers have frequently been suffocated in 



20 
taking out their ale or beer from the vat, as the 
air lies on the surface of the fermenting liquor. 
Nay it has sometimes accumulated in such quaii- 
tites in those cellars, as to prove fatal to several 
people before the cause was detected, and the air 
expelled by ventilation. In mines, wells, and 
the holds of ships, this vapour has often proved 
lethalic. 

Dr. Cullen, in his order of Vemnice, or mental 
derangement, has given five genera : but the 
paroxysm of ebriety more particularly exempli- 
fies the mixed character of amentia, insania et ma- 
nia, or ideotism, agreeable emotions, and violent 
emotions. Oneirodynia, disturbed sleep, which 
comprehends sleep-walking and night-mare, per- 
haps only occurs during the decline of the drunk- 
en paroxysm. And melancholia, melancholy, 
would appear to be suspended during the stimu- 
lant power of wine. This disease is rather the 
offspring of habitual intoxication ; it is probably 
confined to a peculiar temperament of body, that 
is little disposed to be excited, and can endure 
excessive stimulus without proportional action, 
as well in the functions of the sensorium commune, 
as in the circulating system. 

There is a species of delirium that often at- 
tends the early accession of typhus fever, from 



21 

contagion that I have known to be mistaken for 
ebriety. Among seamen and soldiers, where ha- 
bits of intoxication are common, it will some- 
times require nice discernment to decide ; for 
the vacant stare in the countenance, the look of 
ideotism, incoherent speech, faultering voice, and 
tottering walk, are so alike in both cases, that the 
naval and military surgeon ought at all times to 
be very cautious, how he gives up a man to pun- 
ishment under these suspicious appearances. 
Nay, the certainty of his having come from a 
tavern, with even the effluvium of liquor about 
him, are signs not always to be trusted : for these 
haunts of seamen and soldiers are often the 
sources of infection. In all doubtful cases of 
this kind, let the members of our profession be 
guarded in their opinions ; it is safe to lean to the 
humane side. 

There is another species of intoxication that 
follows the inhalation of inflammable spirit, by 
the nose and mouth, without being swallowed. 
This species of ebriety is common to coopers, 
porters, and other workmen employed in cellars 
and distilleries. The most volatile part of the 
spirit, or purest alkohol, which arises in pouring 
it from one vessel to another, probably acts by 
directly stimulating the nerves of the membrana 



22 

Shneideriana spread about the nose and frontal 
sinuses ; and also the inside of the mouth, trachea 
and lungs, and thus produces delirium. This 
ebriety is likewise transitory, and soon disappears 
when the patient is moved into the open air. It 
frequently happens in ships, in pumping spirits 
from a large cask into a smaller, in the confined 
space of a spirit room : but the practice is dan- 
gerous, as vessels have often been set on fire by a 
lighted candle touching the spirits ; and it is now 
strictly forbidden in all well regulated ships in his 
Majesty's navy. 



23 



CHAP. II. 



Phenomena and Symptoms of Drunkenness. 



Hue, Pater O Lenfce, veni: nudataque musto 

Tinge novo mecuna direptis crura eothurnis. Virg* 



THE first effects of wine are, an inexpressi- 
ble tranquility of mind, and liveliness of counte- 
nance : the powers of imagination become more 
vivid, and the flow of spirits more spontaneous 
and easy, giving birth to wit and humour with- 
out hesitation. Dissipat Evius curas edaces. All 
anxieties of business, that require thought and 
attention, are laid aside ; and every painful affec- 
tion of the soul is relieved or alleviated. Placed, 
as it were, in a paradise of pleasure, the being 
only contemplates delightful and agreeable ob- 
jects; the most prominent of them are love and 
desire, 

■ sine Baecho friget Venus. 

Ter. 

The man of a lively fancy, who happens to be 
in love at such a time, sees beauties in his mis- 
tress that he overlooked before ; and he culls 



24 
every flower of poesy that can add warmth to his 
emotions, or passion to his feelings. The deli- 
rium of love may, therefore, be said to begin 
first. 

An agreeable heat is diffused over the whole 
body ; muscular strength is recruited and the ac- 
tion of the heart and arteries is manifestly in- 
creased. 

The vigor of the circulation of the blood, be- 
ing thus augmented, a sparkling of the eyes may 
be observed ; a flush or redness is spread over the 
face, and the whole appearance of the countenance 
is brightened into a smile. 

A painter, such as Hogarth, would find fine 
exercise for his talents in delineating the shades 
and gradations of feature that take place in partic- 
ular persons, from perfect sobriety to the last 
stage of intoxication. The soul, as if inconscious 
of its danger, looks with bodily organs that be- 
speak rapture to the deceitful bowl, which carries 
in its draught every degree of sensation, from 
pleasure to pain from the purest perceptions of 
intellect, to the last confusion of thought ; which 
raises man above the sphere of mortals, and ends, 
by bringing him to a level with the brutes. 

When the mind has attained the highest de- 
gree of pleasurable feeling from vinous stimulus, 



2i 

it is wrapt in reverie, which may be called a 
boundary, between the agreeable sensations of 
sobriety, and the delirious tumults of thought, 
which usher in complete inebriation. The sys- 
tem has been enough excited to bring forth plea- 
surable sensation, to subdue pain, and sufficient 
judgment remains to analize the reflections 
which arise from condition of life, so as to fortify 
the present moment against all intrusive approach- 
es of care or sorrow. Did the giddy votaries of 
Bacchus but stop here, some indulgence might 
be granted, that human nature should a w r hile 
forget those ills which flesh is heir to. 

During this period, which I must beg leave to 
call the drunken reverie, that disguise which all 
mankind, more or less, carry about them, is in 
some measure thrown off. The grave philoso- 
pher himself, becomes convivial, lays aside his se- 
vere demeanour and applauds the jest and the 
song, 

— — Teucer Salamina patremque 

Cum fugerit, tamen uda Lyaeo 

Tempora populea fertur vinxisse corona, Kor . 

Narratur et prisci Catonis 

Ssepe mero caluisse virtus. Ho? 

Invigorated with wine, the infirm man becomes 
strong, and the timid courageous, 

C 



26 
The desponding lover forsakes his solitude, 
and silent shades, and in a cup of Falernian for- 
gets the frowns and indifference of an unkind 
mistress. Even the trembling hypochondriac, 
unmindful of his fears and ominous dreams, 
sports and capers like a person in health. Regaled 
with the pleasures of the board, the soldier no 
longer complains of the hardships of a campaign, 
or the mariner of the dangers of the storm. 

Quis post Vina gravem militiam aut pauperiem crepat I 

Hor. 

Vino peliite curas: 
Cras ingens iterabimus sequor. Hor. 

Dr. Johnson says, "In the bottle, discontent 
! * seeks for comfort, cowardice for courage, and 
u bashfulness for confidence*." 

Such appear to oe the cheerful and. inspiring 
powers of wine. All beyond seem to be chaos 
and madness. " Tria ego pocula tantum misceo, 
u illis qui sapiunt ; unum sanitatis ; alterum vo- 
u luptatis; sopor is tertium, &c.f" " Give strong 
" drink unto him that is ready to perish ; and 
M wine unto those that be of heavy heart. Let 

* Life of Addison. f EabuL 



27 
u him drink and forget his poverty, and retnciri- 
" ber his misery no more*." So spake the roy- 
al voluptuary, who planted him vineyards, and 
gave himself unto wine : yet he soon found, as 
o very drunkard has done since, that " all was 
" vanity and vexation of spirit." 

A lover of the bottle, a jolly companion, as 
commonly expressed, would give you just such 
a description of the effects of wine, as Shak- 
speare has put into the mouth of the maudlin 
Falstaff. " Good faith, this same young sober- 
" blooded boy doth net love me ; nor a man can- 
" not make him laugh : — but that's no marvel ; 
" he drinks no wine. There's never any of 
" these demure boys come to any proof : for thin 
" drink doth so overcool their blood, and mak- 
< c ing many lish meals, that they fall into a kind 
*' of male green- sickness : and then when they 
" marry, they get wenche$:\ they are generally 

* ?ro verbs. 

f " If a drunken man get a child, it will never likely have a good 
" brain/' as Gellius argues. Lib. xii. cap. i. " Ebrii gignunt 
" ebriosy one drunkard begets another," saith Plutarch: — and 
Aristotle himself admits, that " drunken women bring forth chil- 
u dren like unto themselves." Burton Anat. Mel. 

If these authorities, along with Sir John FalstafPs, can have any 
weight, mankind have a stronger reason against intoxication, than 
has usually been urged by moral writers. That is the dread of 



as 

: fools and cowards ; which some of us should 
- be too, but for inflammation, A good sherries 
" sack hath a two-fold operation in it. It ascends 
"me into the brain ; dries there all the foolish, 
tJ and dull, and orudy vapours which environ it ; 
*' makes it apprehensive, quick, forgetive, full 
" of nimble, &ery, and delectable shapes ; which 
u delivered over to the voice (the tongue), which 
"is the birth, becomes excellent wit. The 
M second property of your excellent sherries is, 
" the warming of the blood ; which before, cold 
" and settled, left the liver white and pale ; which 
*' is the badge of pusillanimity and cow r ardice : 
" but the sherries' warms it, and makes it course 
"from the inwards to the parts extreme. It il- 

transmitting insanity to their offspring. Dr. Darwin, in bis reve" 
ries about generation, speaks of the progeny receiving likeness of 
form from the imagination of the parent. But if imagination can 
have the power of impressing the shapeless ens, how much more 
must the real condition of the inebriate. The legislators of some 
countries had such ideas of the effects of wine, as being a poison 
to the soul and a fomentor of vices, that their women were sub- 
jected to the same punishment for drinking" as for adultery. Gel 
lib, x. cap. 23. Whatever may be the truth of this doctrine, so 
briety in husband and wife must give the best chance for a sober 
progeny. Dr. Darwin even says, c< It is remarkable that all the 
** diseases from drinking spirituous or fermented liquors are liable 
u to become hereditary, even to the third generation, gradually in 
u creasing, if the cause be continued, till the family becomes tx 
" tinct." Bot. Gard, Part. iL Note on Vitti. 



29 
1 lumineth the face; which, as a beacon, gives 
c warning to all the rest of this little king- 
1 dom man, to arm : and then the vital com- 
6 moners, and inland petty spirits, muster me all 
1 to their captain the heart ; who great, and puff- 
1 ed up with this retinue, doth any deed of cou- 
A rage ; and this valour comes of sherries : so 
1 that skill in the weapon is nothing without 
c sack ; for that sets it a work ; learning a mere 
( hoard of gold kept by a devil, till sack com- 
| mences it and sets it in act and use. Hereof 
; comes it that prince Henry is valiant ; for the 
1 cold blood he did naturally inherit of his father, 
* he hath, like lean, sterile, and bare land, ma- 
c nured, husbanded, and tilled, with excellent 
' endeavour of drinking good, and good store of 
' fertile sherries : that he is become very hot and 
1 valiant. If I had a thousand sons, the first hu- 
1 man principle I would teach them, should 
' be, — to forswear thin potation, and to addict 
4 themselves to sack*." 

Hen. iv. part ii. act 4. 
The sober pleasures of Bacchus have now 
been detailed ; noisy folly and ribaldry next ap- 
pear : the song becomes louder, and dancing com. 

* This speech when transposed into more philosophical terras, is 
jio bad assemblage of the phenomena of Vinoleacy. 

C2 



30 
inences with the rude squeeze, and every odd 
gesticulation ; cheerfulness and wit are changed 
into low humor and obscene jests. 



-tollite barbamm 



Morem;verecundumque Bacchum 

Sanguineis prohibite rixis. Hfcr. 

The man is now drunk, and whatever he says 
Or does, betrays the errors of the thinking princi- 
ple. This scene is finely painted by Thomson 
in his poem of the Seasons ; and as it is far be- 
yond the compass of medical or technical lan- 
guage, I shall gives it in his own words : 



• But earnest brimming bowls 



Lave every soul, the table floating round, 

And pavement faithless to the fuddled foot. 

Thus as they swim in mutual swill, the talk, 

Vociferous at once from twenty tongues 

Reels fast from theme to theme, from horses, hounds. 

To church or mistress, politics or ghost, 

In endless mazes intricate, perplex'd. 

Mean time, with sudden interruption loud, 

Th* impatient catck bursts from the joyous heart; 

That moment touch'd is every kindred soul ; 

And opening in a full-mouth'd cry of joy, 

The laugh, the slap, the jocund curse go round. 

Along with this noise and folly, all the weak- 
nesses of disposition are unveiled, and the sc- 



31 

crcts of the breast are exposed without reserve* 
He must be a fool indeed, who shall expound to 
a rival, the arcana of his profession, of his love, 
or of his friendship ! hence the old adage, " in 
"vino Veritas" 

Condita cum verax aperit pracordia Liber. Hon, 

From this circumstance, it is finely recorded 
of the Roman chief, that he proved the confi- 
dence and sincerity of his counsellors by wine be- 
fore he ventured to trust them. 

Religious enthusiasm is apt to occupy the ima= 
gination of fanatics at this time, and they burst 
forth with blasphemous and familiar addresses to 
the Deity. Their hypocrisy has lost its veil ; 
they have now the audacity to talk of visitations 
from heaven, and the inspirations of the spirit, 
in all the impudent and unintelligible cant of 
their sect. 

The cultivated mind is even seen in drunken- 
ness. It commits no outrage, provokes no quar- 
rel, and turns its ear from insult and offence. But 
the ignorant and illiterate man is to be shunned 
in proportion to his excess : it is human nature 
in its vilest garb, and madness in its worst form. 

There seems no physical strength of constitu- 
tion that can sufficiently guard against the expo- 



sure of these frailties of disposition ; the most 
torpid feelings discover the infirmity. But there 
is one trait of the moral character, that I have ob- 
served, proof against them. It is notorious in 
the gamester, that he shuns drinking ; but plies 
his companions with the bottle, that he may se- 
cure some advantage to himself. I speak here 
of gaming as a species of avarice. The avari- 
cious man, when drunk, never tells a secret of 
his soul. Avarice is a passion of so mean a na- 
ture, that it will flourish where no other can grow; 
no mental soil is so steril not to nourish it. A 
smaller portion of intellect is required for its ex- 
ercise than for anv other vice. As it is so com- 
pletely environed by self, it feels for no fellow- 
creature : in all conditions of life it looks at 
home : when sober, it displays no charity, and 
never needs to repent of profusion. During 
drunkenness, the ruling passion is steady to its 
purpose; "virtus post nummos:" it is always 
prepared to take advantage of a drunken brother; 
and whether it fleeces him at games of chance, or 
overreaches him by the tricks of a bargain, you 
perceive the grasp of avarice, as true to the lust of 
gain, amidst the delirious excesses of the bottle, 
. as the magnet to the pole, in a storm as sea* 
*' Quiladit temulentiim prodit absentemS*' 



S3 

In the heat of intoxication, supposed affronts, 
that had never been noticed by the party before, 
are called up, to claim an apology, or provoke a 
a quarrel. Resentments that had been long sup- 
pressed, or apparently forgotten, are brought to 
recollection, that they may seek revenge, or meet 
with redress. These give birth to numerous 
feuds and animosities, which frequently terminate 
in bloodshed and death. 

Some conditions of body also mark and ac- 
company this degree of ebriety. As stupor su- 
pervenes, voluntary motion being partly lost, the 
head nods, the walk is tottering, vox faucibus 
hteret*. The countenance looks swoln and in- 
flamed, the eyes start and glare, vision is 
doublef; or, is rendered obscure, from mists or 
meteors, flying, as it were, in the atmosphere. 



-Their feeble tongues, 



Unable to take up the cumbrous word, 

Lie qnite dissolved. Before their maudlin eyes, 

See dim and blue, the double tapers dance, 



Like the sun wading- through the misty sky. 



Thomson. 



Rt ebrins intendum imptaviso minget, et alvum 
exonerat. These imbecilities are the conse- 

* Aphonia temuientorum. Sauv. s. 3. 
f Diplopia a temulentia. Sauv. Var, 10. 



34 

quence of the loss of power in the sphincter 
muscles : they are peculiar to certain persons. 
Even voracious appetite, such as is sometimes 
observed in the apoplectic state, is no unfrequent 
occurrence in this stage of ebriety. 

Such are the chief phenomena of drunkenness; 
but they vary considerably in different persons, 
and very much depend on the natural disposition 
and temperament. We thus see some men, in 
their cups, mild, good-natured, and gentle ; while 
others are fierce, irrascible, and implacable : this 
one is complaisant to his enemy, and forgetful of 
injuries; that, is insulting to his friend, and 
mindful of revenge. This person is gay, musical, 
and loquacious ; that one is dull, sullen, and si- 
lent. Here, a drunkard weeps and moans with 
wry faces ; there, another, turbulent and loud, 
foaming with rage, makes the dome echo with 
oaths and imprecations, As in every other spe- 
cies of insanity, so in these moments the inebri- 
ate forgets the blush of ingenuous shame, and 
commits many indecent actions. 

How dreadful the lot of that man, who while 
heated and mad with wine, should plunge his 
sword into the bosom of his friend ! In such an 
hour the infuriate Alexander slew his most dear 
companion Clytus ! 



3d 

The doctrine of temperaments is net well tin- 
derstood : and it would be difficult to explain the 
peculiar actions of persons during the influence 
of wine, by the induction of this doctrine. The 
sanguineous and choleric temperaments, I con- 
ceive to be most prone to resentment and ferocity; 
as may be observed in those whose countenance 
becomes very much flushed or bloated, with their 
eyes as if starting from their sockets : the former 
of the two is the most lascivious and amorous. 
The nervous temparament exhibits most signs of 
idiotism, and is childish and foolish in its drunken 
pranks. The phlegmatic temperament is diffi- 
cult to be roused ; is passive and silent, and may 
fall from the chair before many external signs of 
ebriety appear. The melancholic -temperament, 
as when sober, is tenacious of whatever it under- 
takes ; and shews least of the inebriate in its man- 
ner. But all constitutions havesomething pecu- 
liar to them, and the shades of character blend so 
insensibly with one another, that distinction be- 
comes difficult. 

When matters are come to this pass, the stom- 
ach, from being too much overloaded, or from 
that debility which follows all excessive stimula- 
tion, is affected with nausea and vomiting. Should 
this nothappen, sleep quickly seizes the inebriate. 



36 

and very frequently attended with sierteroirs 
breathing. After the space of a few hours, or soon- 
er or later, his senses being recovered, but with- 
out recollection of what has passed, the drunkard 
awakes, languid, low-spirited, and much debili- 
tated. 

Here the paroxysm may be said to terminate,, 
and more or less of febrile affection commences : 
from whence are produced, sensibility to the ex- 
ternal air, chills, shivering, creeping on the skin, 
weakness, inactivity of body and mind, heavi- 
ness and pain of the head, nausea, thirst, vomiting 
small pulse, for the most part frequent, with many 
other signs of debility. 

The drunken paroxysm, as far as can be ob- 
served in those who are addicted to the habit, has 
some variation from the history now given of the 
phenomena. The cheerfulness of mind, and lively 
countenance, with all the agreeable and pleasura- 
ble feelings, are by no means exhibited in the de- 
gree. In short, like all human enjoyments, the 
exhilirating powers of wine lose their fine zest 
and high relish, by being too frequently indulged. 
This very circumstance at once draws the line 
between the temperate man and the sot. 

It ought to be remembered, that the same 
quantity of wine, or vinous spirit, will not always 



37 

produce the same effects in the same person; 
or in the same man at all times. This must de- 
pend on the habit of intoxication ; the stomach be- 
ing full or empty ; the usual hour of drinking ; 
a cold or warm country ; the temperature of the 
room ; the summer or winter season ; fasting, or 
after a repast ; and finally, by whatever means 
the state of the body increases or diminishes the 
action of stimuli. This is the scale of excitabili- 
ty, as explained by Brown in his Elementa 
Medicine. 

The most sotted drunkard knows well that a 
smaller quantity of spirit will do his business in a 
morning than after he has dined. Hence a rule 
in temperance never to drink wine on an empty 
stomach ; or after very long fasting. A very 
striking fact to this purpose, is to be found in 
Captain Bligh's narrative of his passage to Timor, 
after the mutiny on board the Bounty, The al- 
lowance of water and provision was so exceeding- 
ly small, that it was little better than fasting. The 
rum was measured by a tea spoonful ; yet the 
body was so susceptible of stimulus, that this 
quantity produced inebriation. This condition 
has been called accumulated excitability. 

Again, persons labouring under typhus fever 
very frequently consume from four to six pounds 

D 



38 

of wine in the twenty-four hours ; not only with- 
out stupour supervening, but delirium, such as 
it is in that disease, disappearing ; and the fre- 
quency of the pulse diminishing in proportion at 
the same time. The use of wine as a cordial in 
fever is of very ancient date. Pliny the elder 
says:- — "Cardiacorum morbo, unicam spem in 
" vino esse, certum est*." Aretaus, and 
Caelius Aurelianus give similar evidence. In 
my own practice, supported by experience more 
extensive than that of any physician of the pre- 
sent age, it has been my chief remedy ; and 
when directed with due precaution, by far the 
most efficacious in the low typhus feverf . 



* Plin. Nat. Hist. lib. xxiii. c. 2. 

| Vide Medicma Nautica, vol. i. art. Typhus. 



39 



CHAP. III. 

In what Manner vinous Spirit affects the Body. 

Every inordinate cup is unblessed, and the ingredient is a— devil ! 

Shakspeare. 

IN the preceding chapter I have detailed the 
effects of wine in the living human body, as far 
as seemed necessary for marking the phenome- 
na which take place from perfect sobriety, to the 
state of intoxication and total insensibility. 

The first effect to be perceived is stimulant 
and exciting ; calling forth vigor of body and 
mind, pleasurable sensation, and power of intel- 
lect. The next is loss of voluntary motion, and 
delirium. The last is a state of indirect debility, 
or exhausted excitability, from inordinate action 
©f the different functions. 

The inebriating quality of all liquors, I have 
said, depends upon the alkohol which they 
contain. This word is of Arabic origin ; for the 
Arabians first obtained alkohol from wine. It 
means the pure spirit separated by repeated dis- 



40 
filiations- from all grosser matter. It is the pro- 
duct of the vinous fermentation from sugar, and 
can only be obtained from those substances 
which possess the saccharine principle. 

As an article in materia medica, physicians 
have referred alkohol to the class of narcotics; 
medicines which induce stupor and sleep, among 
which are reckoned opium, bangue, cicuta, 
belladonna, hyosciamus, nicotiana, lauro-cera- 
sus, &c. 

The operation of narcotics has lately given 
birth to much controversj' in medical writings ; 
the one party contending for a primary sedative 
power in these medicines, v 7 hich, by suspending 
sense and motion, that condition of the body 
takes place which is called sleep. On the other 
hand it is argued, that the first effects of narcotics 
are stimulant and exciting ; and that sleep only 
comes on as a consequence of preceding excite- 
ment : they are therefore to be considered as only 
indirectly sedatives. Experiments have been in- 
stituted by both parties, from which each have 
drawn conclusions favourable to their own side 
of the question. In disputes of this nature, pre- 
conceived theories, attachment to particular doc- 
trines, and favourite modes of reasoning, have had 
great influence in prejudicing the minds of the 



41 

different combatants, and thus giving birth t<> 
seeming contradictions. But there is one point 
in which they nearly agree, and which seems suf- 
ficient for the purpose of the practical physician. 
It is admitted, I think on all hands, that narcotic 
medicines, or I will take the chief of them, 
opium, is universally found to be hurtful and im- 
proper, in all sthenic diseases, or those reputed to 
be inflammatory in their nature. Who ever 
thinks of prescribing opium in pneumonia ? in 
phrenitis, or in acute rheumatism previous to 
venisection and other evacuations? What rea- 
sons are assigned for this caution ? They are ob- 
vious : In pneumonia, opium increases the dif- 
ficulty of expectoration and breathing, and 
anxiety; in phrenitis it exalts the delirium and 
restlessness ; and in acute rheumatism, the fever, 
pain, and heat of the body, become more severe 
after its exhibition. These effects are produced 
by a general stimulant power, spread over the 
whole body, but particularly exemplified in the 
circulating system. The stroke of the artery 
becomes either fuller or more oppressed ; the 
lungs are overloaded with blood, and incapable 
of due expansion ; the blood is also accumulated 
in the head, apparent from the flush of the coun- 
tenance and redness of the eyes, and throbbing of 

D2 



42 
the temporal arteries ; the circulation being also 
increased in the joints, gives additional heat and 
pain. The physician who thus decides from 
sick-bed experience, wisely withholds opium in 
all such conditions of body. 

But in another state of the body, very oppo- 
site to the diseases just mentioned ; and often in- 
dependent of all authorities of physicians, various 
substances of this class are used by the inhabi- 
tants of different countries, as opium and bang 
by the Turks and East Indians, and tobacco by 
all others. These articles are certainly not taken 
in this manner, either for their antispasmodic or 
sedative virtues : but as stimulants and cordials, 
that give vigour to the system, raise the spirits, 
call forth agreeable feelings, and render the body, 
for a time, capable to bear fatigue and privation 
of food. 

Opium, it is well known, is the juice obtained 
from the seed-pcd of the white poppy, papaver 
somniferum Lin. S. P. and when taken in due 
quantity is very analogous in its action to ardent 
spirit. Bang, or bangue, is made from the leaf 
of a wild kind of hemp, that grows in the coun- 
tries of the Levant. It is first dried and then 
pulverized. The effects of this drug are to con- 
found the understanding; set the imagination 



43 

loose ; induce a kind of folly and forgetlulne&s, 
wherein all cares are left, and joy and gaiety take 
place thereof. Bang in reality is a succedaneum 
to wine, and obtains in those countries where 
mahometanism is established ; which prohibiting 
the use of that liquor absolutely, the poor Mus- 
sulmans are forced to have recourse to succeda- 
nea to rouse their spirits*. 

In a large dose these substances bring on de- 
lirium, stupor, and other phaenomena of ebriety. 
Their habitual use causes universal debility, 
emaciation, loss of intellect, palsy, dropsy, dys- 
pepsia, hepatic diseases, and all others which flow 
from indulgence of spirituous liquors. I may 
therefore conclude, that all narcotics have more 
or less the same effect. 

From these articles, and some others of the 
same class, alkohol chiefly differs, by being taken 
generally in a diluted state, such as in wine, beer, 
or punch, and used as an ingredient in diet. High- 
ly rectified spirit, or pure alkohol, could scarcely 
be admitted into the human stomach, even in ve- 
ry moderate quantity, without proving immedi- 
diately fatal. The coats of the stomach would 
be unable to resist so concentrated a stimulus; 

* Ency. Brit, 



44 

they would be instantly decompounded, as is done 
by nitric or sulphuric acids. When given by 
drops like tinct. opii, in any convenient drink, 
this pure alkohol will prove equally serviceable in 
allaying pain, in increasing the strength and vel- 
ocity of the pulse, raising the spirits, &c. and 
would be called antispasmodic. But to show 
how inconclusive much of the reasoning is, 
which has been employed here ; the supporters 
of the sedative doctrine, do not deny a directly 
stimulant power to all vinious liquors. The ef- 
fects of opium, I consider nearly alike to those 
of ardent spirit. The opium-eaters among the 
Turks, give evidence of this substance increasing 
desire, and the sexual appetite, like wine in mod- 
erate quantities ; but destroying the passion 
when long used, or too largely employed. It is % 
well known that many of our fair countrywomen 
Garry laudanum about with them, and take it free- 
ly when under low spirits. This custom is cer- 
tainly as little to be justified as the use of bran- 
dy. Were opium a sedative, how could it pos- 
sess those powers, evidently stimulating to the 
bodies of persons who never troubled themselves 
about the disputes concerning the mode of action 
and who could be biassed by no theoretical opin- 
ion. 



45 

There are some liquors which have a hurtful 
tendency, independent of spirituous quality. The 
malt liquors, and cyder of this country, do not 
undergo so perfect a fermentation, as the product 
of the grape in warmer latitudes. The first is 
therefore apt to disorder the stomach, by a slight 
fermentation afterwards in the body: this is a pro- 
cess that persons of weak degestive organs cannot 
suffer without much pain. The carbonic acid 
gas which is there disengaged, excites gastro- 
dynia, flatulency, and distention ; but we are ac- 
quainted with no virtues which this gas possesses 
beyond a slight stimulus ; the modern practice 
of exhibiting it so often, and in various ways, 
has rather arisen from the rage after chemical 
remedies, than any fair evidence that has been 
given of its medical qualities. The cyders of 
of England, and America, and I rather suppose 
of all countries, are impregnated with much un- 
decompounded acid : the apple yields but a small 
quantity of saccharine matter, at least not suffi- 
cient by its fermentative quality to overcome the 
whole of the malic acid which abounds in the fruit 
and thus convert it into vinous spirit. But beer, 
and particularly porter, have their narcotic pow^ 
er much increased by noxious compounds which 
enter them ; and the bitters which are necessary 



46 

to their preservation, by long use, injure the 
nerves of the stomach, and add to the stupefactive 
quality. Malt-liquor drinkers are known to be 
prone to apoplexy and palsy, from this very 
cause : and purl drinkers in a still greater degree, 
a mixture peculiar to this country. This poison- 
ous morning beverage was, till lately, confined to 
the metropolis and its vicinity ; but has now, like 
other luxuries, found its way into all provincial 
towns. 

The legislature has lately turned its attention 
to the noxious quality of some of the porter 
brewed in London; and opium has been men- 
tioned as an ingredient frequently added to this 
liquor. An increase of duty has been laid on 
this celebrated drug by way of prohibition. But 
when we consider that four grains of opium are 
sufficient, to double the intoxicating power of a 
gallon of porter, the article is still cheap enough 
to be used by the brewer, without subtracting 
much of his profits. The increased duty will 
also increase the temptation to smuggle. The 
Minister of the present day is a professed phy- 
sician, and once prescribed a hop pillow to an il- 
lustrious patient. May Heaven direct, that the 
Hopes with which he now pillows that sacred 
head, may not turn out a bitter pillow J But Mr. 



47 
Addington does not seem to have been aware, 
that while he was taking opium from the brew- 
ers, he left them in full possession of a long list 
of narcotics. They have the Coculus Indicus, 
dog-poison, which is said to be their favourite 
ingredient : they have also hyosciamus, bella- 
donna, and lauro-cerasus ; all of which are cheap ; 
and could they not also procure, at a low price, 
bangue from the Levant, which many Mahome- 
tans prefer to opium itself ? I believe bitters of 
all kinds, long continued, are hurtful to the nerv- 
ous system ; it is difficult to say which of them 
ought to be preferred as being most salutary. 
Hop is certainly one of the most grateful, but 
possesses no superior efficacy as an antizymic. 
It is an article on which Government can levy a 
duty with more certainty than on any other, and 
its bulk and mode of growth preclude smuggling; 
but these seem the chief reasons for the prefer- 
ence. Again, while the Minister was commend- 
ably employed in checking the nefarious traffic 
of the brewers, he forgot that he was wresting 
from the bed of pain and sickness, by increasing 
its price, an article that is the last refuge of our 
art ; that fortifies the soul against the pangs of 
separation from the body, and as it were prunes 
its wings for its flight to another world ! But, to 
return to my subject : 



48 
The operation of vinous spirit on the body k> 
twofold ; which may be divided into 

I. Intoxicating ; and, 
II. Chemical. 



Intoxication or drunkenness is the delirium 
which succeeds the immediate use of fermented 
liquors or wine. It is " delirium ferox ;" it is 
the ferocious delirium of authors, to distinguish 
it from the mild delirium, " delirium mite" 
such as attends the fever from typhoid con- 
tagion. 

It would be an endless digression, and very lit- 
tle useful to the present investigation, to detail 
the various theories and conjectures of physicians 
and metaphysicians on the connexion between 
body and mind. That our intellectual part can 
be disturbed, and so completely deranged, by bo- 
dily diseases, as to be incapable of using its rea- 
soning powers, is a fact sufficiently established 
to be universally admitted. But to offer opinions 
on the nature of a soul, of a nervous power, or of 
a sentient principle, is not the intention of this 
work. I shall therefore confine myself to the 
humbler, but more useful task, of gleaning the 



49 
lield of inquiry for scattered facts, and endeavour 
to collect them into 'a groupe. 

The stimulant action of ardent spirit is first 
exerted on the stomach, and spread, by sympa- 
thy, from thence to the sensoriam commune, and 
the rest of the system. But there can be no 
doubt that much of the liquor also enters the 
circulation, and gives there an additional stimu- 
lus : for we are acquainted with no particular ap- 
petency inherent in the lacteal vessels, that can 
confine the absorption only to mild and bland 
fluids. It is true that the urine, perspirable mat- 
ter, and serum of inebriates, have never yet been 
so carefully analyzed as to discover alkohol ; but 
that vinous spirit mixes with the blood we know 
to a certainty, from the hydrogenous gas which 
escapes from the lungs, to be perceived in the 
fcetor of the breath. We are, however, ignorant 
what combinations the hydrogen, or other parts 
of the alkohol, may form with the human fluids. 
But, besides the effect which spirits may have, 
in directly exciting the nervous system, it would 
appear that intoxication and delirium are also 
much increased, by the force of the circulation 
in the blood vessels of the brain, and the me- 
chanical compression as a consequence of their 
surcharged state. This being admitted, at once 

E 



60 
explains why so much comatose affection attends 
ebriety. It is also observed that some liquors, 
more than others, produce sopor : porter, and all 
strong malt liquors, are of this description, as 
characterised by the swoln and bloated counte- 
nance, stupor, sluggishness, drowsiness, and 
sleep : while gaiety and an immense flow of 
spirits distinguish the frisky delirium from drink- 
ing champaigne, and some other liquors. Obesity 
and fulness commonly follow the long indulgence 
of strong ale, strong beer, or porter : the blood 
vessels would appear to be clogged with a dense 
blood ; and I have observed, in such cases, that 
the drunken paroxysm lasts much longer, than 
when it has been produced by any kind of wine, 
or even ardent spirit diluted or otherwise. The 
fixed air in champaigne must give but a tempo- 
rary stimulus ; and the tartar, which is an ingre- 
dient in all wines, probably facilitates their 
evacuation from the body, by its diuretic quality. 
Indeed the only way of accounting for the solu- 
tion of the drunken paroxysm, must be as follows: 
the ardent spirit must either be attenuated, dilu- 
ted, neutralized, or evacuated, that it ceases to 
have effects. It probably partakes of all these. 
It is also peculiar to the living fibre, to remain a 
given time in the state of excitement only, unless 



51 

a new portion of stimulus is supplied. But the 
body does not immediately return to the former 
condition after the solution of the disease. It has 
been weakened by excessive stimulation ; and it 
is only by the exhibitation of moderate stimuli, 
such as pure air, animal food, and mental exhila- 
ration, that it can resume its former health and 
vigor. The head-ach, nausea, languor, and low- 
spirits, which follow a debauch, are so many 
proofs of a debilitated frame. The sot is then 
a subject for the prescription of Horace* who, like 
Solomon, speaks from experience. 

Tostis marcentem squillis recrealris, et Afra 
Potorem cochlea : nam lactuca innatat acri 
Post vinum stomacho : perna magis, ac magis hiliis 
Flagitat inmorsus refici :— 

The disciples of the late Dr. Brown, author 
of Elementa Medicines^ some of these, men of 
great genius and learning, were always at a loss 
to explain the scale of exciting power on the 
excitability, by demonstration. Thus, if you 
begin at good health, and stimulate a man up to 
any sthenic disease ; afterwards he must fall to a 
point beneath what he originally was ; and in de- 
scending the scale he must at one period of his 
descent touch at good health. Now this seems 



52 
a paradox. The yellow fever is a sthenic disease 
in the first stage ; in the second it is a mixture of 
sthenic and asthenic ; and in the last it is truly 
asthenic. Now in its descent from one end of 
the scale to the other, the patient at one time 
must have been at the point of good health. Mr. 
Christie, who, I believe, first contrived to de- 
monstrate this doctrine by a mathematical scale, 
should have formed it in a circle, which would 
have exactly answered his purpose. The fit of 
intoxication is somewhat analogous to the above 
description of yellow fever. 

While the bodv is under the influence of in- 
toxication, it is suprising how it will resist im- 
pressions, that at other times would be fatal. This 
is particularly the case with respect to the conta- 
gion, and cold ; and perhaps also its insensibility, 
to pain. Men in this condition have certainly, 
on many occasions, been exposed to typhus 
contagion, and escaped ; while others have suf- 
fered : but whether under the same circum- 
stances they would have resisted variolous infec- 
tion I cannot determine. This being the case, 
a practice has been inculcated by some physi- 
cians, to swallow a little brandy when they ap- 
proach the sick bed, by way of precaution. With 
respect to the preference to be given to this mode 






of prevention, I am not enabled to subscribe, a- 
I have never practised it ; but it appears to me 
rather the placebo of a timid attendant. It is 
well known that a vigorous circulation of the 
blood, with that resolution and temper of mind 
which accompany it, is highly favourable to the 
resistance of contagion ; and such a condition of 
body and mind may be induced by ardent spirit. 
But this kind of practice does not agree with 
my ideas on the subject. A physician in the act 
of visiting a patient under an infectious disease, 
whether in an hospital ward, or in a private apart- 
ment, ought to consider what effect his example 
may have on those about him ; for whatever he 
does will be imitated. The use of spirituous 
liquors, 1^ think, might have bad effects among 
nurses and other attendants of the sick. I would 
much rather inculcate those precepts of security, 
froui ventilation and cleanliness, &c. which have 
effected wonders in our naval service. I am also 
partial to mental stimuli, which naturally spring 
from the desire of doing our duty. But if at 
any time these spirits should be too freely taken, 
the debility that succeeds will more certainly 
predispose the body for the reception of coiKa- 
gion. Persons under such circumstances should 

E2 



54 

carefully avoid all communication with infected 
people, furniture, or cloathing. 

The drunkard is also found, in the first stage 
of the paroxysm, to resist the operation of cold. 
No stronger proofs of this need be adduced than 
what are daily observed among our seamen in the 
naval sea-ports. ~ These men are permitted to 
come on shore to recreate themselves ; but, 
from a thoughtlessness of disposition, and the 
cunning address of their landlords, they drink 
till the last shilling is spent ; they are then thrust 
out of the door, and left to pass the night on the 
pavement. It is surprising how they should 
escape death on such occasions ; for I have 
known many of them who have slept on the 
street the greatest pajt of the night in the severest 
weather. Nothing but that hardiness of consti- 
tution peculiar to the British seamen, which 
braves every danger, could survive such ex- 
tremes of cold. During my residence at Ply- 
mouth Dock, towards the conclusion of the late 
war, I had the satisfaction of getting 200 gin- 
shops shut up. They were destroying the very 
vitals of our naval service* In the year 1800> 
not less than one million four hundred thousand 
pounds prize-money were paid at that port to 
the seamen ; and every trick was practised to en- 



5o 
trap those credulous and unthinking people. At 
overgrown brewer, who had monopolised a 
number of these houses, complained heavily of 
my representations to the admiralty ; and said 
that he had lost 5000/. by the business. It was 
a most fortunate measure, that such nuisances 
were corrected before the ships were paid off at 
the peace. 

The following fact is a strong instance of the 
inebriate resisting cold. A miller, wry much 
intoxicated, returning from market late at night 
while it snowed and froze very hard, missed his 
way, and fell down a steep bank into the mill 
dam. By the fright and suden immersion, he 
become so far sensible as to recollect where he 
was. He then thought the surest way home 
would be to follow the-«tream, which would take 
him within pistol-shot of his own door. Instead 
however, of taking that course he waded against 
the current, without knowing it, till his passage 
was opposed by a wooden bridge. This bridge 
he knew ; and though he felt some disappoint- 
ment, he still thought his best way was to follow 
the stream, for the banks were steep and difficult 
to climb. He now found himself in a comforta- 
ble glow ; turned about, and arrived at his ow*n 
house at midnight, perfectly sober, after having 



56 
been nearly two hours in the water, and often up 
to the breech. He went immediately to bed, 
and rose in perfect health. — As his senses were 
recovered at the time he got home, it is probi- 
ble he could not have resisted the cold much 
longer. This instance tends to confirm a com- 
mon observation, that sudden immersion in cold 
water puts a speedy end to intoxication. 

In an uncommonly cold day ? and when snow 
and sleet were falling, I found a seaman asleep 
on the road, most stupidly drunk. Afraid that he 
would soon perish, I ran to the guard house, and 
procured two soldiers to carry him into a house. 
We succeeded in getting him upright ; but the 
moment he saw soldiers about him, the dread of 
becoming their prisoner so far operated, that 
he recovered the use of his limbs, and fled from 
them with the utmost speed, and did not stop 
till he thought himself out of their reach. I 
came up, and found him again asleep by the side 
of a wall. When I roused him he knew me, 
and humourously remarked, that he had a right 
to sleep where he pleased, for he came on shore 
on liberty ! ; 

Insensibility to 'pain, in the inebriate state is 
daily exemplified, by the most dreadful bruises 
and wounds being inflicted without the smallest 



57 
>igns of feeling, and generally without recollec- 
tion. Cases of this kind are more frequent 
among seamen than any were else : their heed- 
less revels expose them to more disasters than 
other descriptions of mankind. A fatal wound 
is thus often received without the slightest recol- 
lection how it was done. 

A sailor belonging to a king's ship, in which I 
then served, while drunk, quarrelled with his 
wife ; and, in the fury of his passion, seized 
a butcher's clever, and cut off two of his fingers 
by the root. The wounds were dressed and 
the man put to bed. When he waked in the 
morning, he had no remembrance of what hap- 
pened ; showed the utmost contrition, and wept 
like a child for his misfortune when he was told 
that he had done it himself. 

Many curious anecdotes might be collected 
of drunken people, that could not well b* arranged 
among the usual phenomena. Men of unculti- 
vated minds exhibit most signs of outrage and 
ferocity : and are certainly the most dangerous. 
Drunkenness has been called a vice of barbarous 
and uncivilized nations* ; for savages in the state 
of intoxication are like so many devils. But 
Christians have little reason to charge the Negra 

* Robertson's America, book iv. Forster's Voyage, page 481 = 



58 

and Indian with the propensity to intoxication 
while it prevails so much among themselves. 
I have known a drunken man whip a post 
till he was tired, which he took for a human 
being that would not move out of his way. An 
eld gentleman of 80, when in his cups, became 
so amorous, as to take a lamp-post for a lady, 
and addressed it with all the language of passion 
and flattery. Dreams are sometimes known to 
make a strong impression on the minds of some 
people, and it requires a considerable time to 
weigh circumstances and compare facts, before 
they are undeceived. An officer much accus- 
tomed to hard drinking, after getting intoxicated 
at the mess-table, fell asleep ; and awoke sudden- 
ly at the end of two hours. He then told one of 
his brother officers in a peremptory tone of voice, 
that as it was an aifair of honour, now was the 
best time for settling it ; and insisted upon their 
taking their ground immediately. It was with 
great difficulty that he could be pacified : and no 
small remonstrance took place before he was con- 
vinced that he had been dreaming. 

The following history of a drunken party is 
taken from Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy; 
a work that abounds with odd sayings*. u A 

♦ Part i. Sect. 2. Mem. 5. Subs. i. 



59 
''company of young men at Agrigentum in Sicily 
" came into a tavern ; when, after they had free- 
11 ly taken their liquor, whether it were the wine 
■? itself, or something mixed with it, 'tis not yet 
"known ; but upon a sudden they began to be 
11 so troubled in their brain, that their phantasies 
" so crazed, that they thought they were in a ship 
* l at sea ; and now ready to be cast away by rea- 
"son of a tempest. Wherefore, to avoid ship- 
u wreck, and prevent drowning, they flung all 
" the goods in the house out at the windows into 
"the street, or into the sea, as they supposed; 
u thus they continued mad a pretty season ; and 
" being brought before the magistrate to give an 
" account of this their fact, they told him (not yet 
" recovered of their madness), that what was done 
"they did for fear of death, and to avoid immi- 
"nent danger. The spectators were all amazed 
" at this their stupidity ; and gazed on them stilly 
" whilst one of the ancientest of the company, in 
u a grave tone excused himself to the magistrate 
" upon his knees, ! viri Tritonis, ego in imo 
"jacui; I beseech your Deities, &c. for I was 
11 in the bottom of the ship all the while. Another 
u besought them as so many sea-gods, to be good 
u unto them ; and if ever he and his fellows came 
41 to land again, he would build an altar to their 



60 

u service. The magistrate could not sufficiently 
" laugh at this their madness ; bid them sleep it 
" out, and went his ways." 

This drunken adventure, I believe, was ori- 
ginally told by Plato, The house where it hap- 
pened was one of the first in the city ; and was 
ever afterwards called Triremes, or the ship, 
Brydone, in his Tour through Sicily, gives us an 
account of another drunken party, for whom he 
made punch after the English form. He says, 
" We were obliged to replenish the bowl so 
u often, that I really expected to see many of 
" them under the table. They called it Pontio, 
" (alluding to Pontius Pilate), and spoke loudly 
" in its praise ; declaring that Pontio was a much 
" better fellow than they had taken him for. 
" However, after dinner, one of them a reverend 
" canon, grew excessively sick, and while he was 
" throwing up, he turned to me with a rueful 
u countenance, and, shaking his head, he groan- 
" ed out, ' Ah Signor Capitano, sapeva sempre, 
" che Pontio era un grande traditore.' ' I al- 
" ways knew that Pontius was a great traitor. 5 — 
" Another, overhearing him, exclaimed, c Aspet- 
u tativi Signor canonico*' c Not so fast, my 
4i good canon.' 'Niente al pregiudizio di Sig- 
u nor Pontio vi prego/-— Recordate che Pontio 



61 
" v 5 ha fatto un canonico; et Pontio ha fatto 
" sua excellenza uno vescovo ; non scordatevi 
u mai di vostri amicis.'* — Let. xx. 

From these accounts, we must conclude the 
Sicilians are rather a frisky people in their drunk- 
en revels. We thus observe that the character 
of nations, as well as individuals, may be dis- 
covered in these moments. The description 
which Tacitus gives of a German carousal differs 
considerably from that of these volatile islanders; 
for, according to what he asserts, deliberations 
of the most serious kind seem to have been en- 
tered upon during ebriety, as well as quarrels 
and bloodshed. He says, " Diam noctemque 
" continuare potando, nulli probrum. Crebae ut 
11 inter vinolentos rixse, raro convitiis, saepius 
" csede et vulneribus, transiguntur. Sed et de 
u reconciliandis invicem inimicis, et jungendis 
" affinitatibus, et adsciscendis principibus, de 
" pace denique ac bello plerumque in conviviis 
" consultant : tamque nullo magis tempore aut 
" ad simplices cogitationes pateat animus, aut ad 
" magnes incalescat. Gens non astuta nee calli- 
u da, aperit adhuc secreta pectoris licentia loci. 
" Erga detecta et nuda omnium mens, postera 
" die retrahitur : et salva utriUvSque temporis 
" ratio est. Deliberant dum fingere nesciunt ; 

F 



62 
" constituunt dum errare non pos9unt*." We 
thus perceive that the frisky Sicilian, and the se- 
date German exhibit very opposite traits of 
character, when under the influence of wine. It 
is notorious of the Dutch, and some other 
Northern nations, that they are very prone to 
quarrel and commit murder when drunk. Dif- 
ference of climate, religion, political institutions, 
and customs may account for this contrast in the 
disposition and passions of these nations ; but 
such an inquiry is not consistent with the nature 
of our work ; it is sufficient to notice the 
fact. 

II. That alkohol, independent of its intoxi- 
cating quality, possesses a chemical operation in 
the human body, cannot be doubted. Applied 
directly to the animal solid, it constringes and 
hardens it : and suspends its progress towards 
putrefaction when separated from the body. It 
coagulates the serum of the blood, and most of 
the secreted fluids. 

Alkohol certainly, deoxygenates the blood in 
some degree ; at least decompounds its floridity. 
The arterial blood of a professed drunkard, ap- 
proaches to the colour of venous ; it is darker 

* Tacitus De Moribus Gerraanomm 



63 
than usual. The rosy colour of the eruptions 
about the nose and cheeks does not disprove this: 
for it is probable that these spots attract oxygen 
from the atmosphere through the cuticle that 
covers them, just as Dr. Priestly observed ve- 
nous blood, confined in a bladder, to acquire a 
more florid colour from the exposure to his de- 
phlogisticated air*. In the sea scurvy, a dis- 
ease, where, in the advanced stage, the blood is 
always found of a very dark colour, we know 
that spirituous liquors more than any thing else, 
have a manifest tendency to aggravate every 
symptom. This fact has often come under my 
observation ; and a very correct statement of the 
kind is to be found in my first volume on the 
Diseases of the Fleet, page 410. 

The component parts of alkohol are not suf- 
ficiently known ; but it has a large proportion of 
hydrogen, which is proved by its combustion 
in pure air, when water is produced. Thus 
fourteen ounces of alkohol burnt in a proper ap- 
paratus, with a sufficient quantity of oxygen gas, 
yield sixteen ounces of pure water; hydrogen 
and oxygen being the component principles of 
water, as proved by modern chemistry. Alkohct 

* Priestly, Experiments on Air. • 



64 
has a strong attraction for water, and readily mix- 
es with it, and it is the chief vehicle in which it 
is drank ; but in what manner it is separated 
from the water within the body, would be diffi- 
cult to find out. The evolution of hydrogenous 
gas is chiefly learned from the fcetorof the breath ; 
it seems to be sent off from the surface of the 
lungs, in a disengaged state ; and so pure in its 
kind from the expiration of a dram-drinker, that 
it is easily inflamed on the approach of a candle. 
The process of respiration probably effects this ; 
and I should think at such a time there must be 
an unusual consumption of vital air. No exper- 
iments have been made on the blood of inebriates: 
and we are not informed, that in the circulatiug 
state, it exceeds the common temperature of the 
human body. -But it is said, on the authority of 
Mr. Spalding, the celebrated diver, that after 
drinking spirits he always found the air in his bell 
consumed in a shorter time, than when he drank 
water. This gentleman was lost in Dublin bay 
in 1783, in attempting to take the treasure out 
of an imperial Indiaman that sunk there, on her 
passage from Liverpool where she was built : 
the misfortune, it appeared, was owing to the 
negligence of the attendents in not renewing the 
air. 



65 

If the blood of drunkards is strongly charged 
with hydrogen, must not that very much affect 
the quality of the biliary secretion, independent 
of any effect it may have on the liver itself ? 
Might not the resinous matter which bile is 
found to contain, be greatly increased after 
spirituous potation ? The liver is an organ very 
liable to be injured by hard drinking ; this gives 
cause for suspicion, that the chemical operation 
of alkohol on the blood and the bile, has also 
some share in producing hepatic diseases It 
may increase the generation of biliary calculi, and 
the disposition of dyspepsia, which prevail in the 
constitution of drunkards. 

Is the perspirable matter of drunkards, at all 
impregnated with hydrogenous gas ? 

I am much of opinion that the chemical opera- 
tion of alkohol, has a great influence in retarding 
the healing of wounds, and in converting them 
into ulcers, I believe all surgeons agree, that 
such an effect takes place after hard-drinking, 
though it is generally attributed to the fever and 
inflammation which it occasions. The common 
appearance of eruptions on the surface of the 
body, may in a great measure be referred to the 
same scource. The exhalations of hydrogenous 
gas, which arise in some places, are very apt to 

F2 



66 

irritate the eyes, and bring on a painful ophthal 
mia ; from which it is fair to infer, that the same 
effect may take place, from blood loaded with 
hydrogen, circulating through the minute vessels 
of the tunica adnata, as the disease is a common 
one with wine-bibbers. The foetor of ulcers, in 
all drunken subjects, is unusually great ; and I 
shall speak of this under the diseases. 

But the most interesting part of this doctrine, 
is the combustion of the human body, produced 
by the long and immoderate use of spirituous 
liquors. Such cases are on record ; and a col- 
lection of them, with remarks, is to be found in 
the Journal de Physique, year 8, by Pierre Aime 
Lair. I subjoin a copy of that memoir, taken 
from the Philosophical Magazine, vol. vi. p. 132. 
by Mr. Alexander Tilloch. It is in vain to re- 
quest implicit faith to this narrative. The testi- 
mony on which the whole cases are given, seems 
nearly alike. But in the present state of che- 
mistry, and what we know of the nature of spirit- 
uous liquors, it does not appear beyond credi- 
bility, that from their long and excessive use, 
such a quantity of hydrogen might accumulate 
in the body, as to sustain the combustion of 
it. 



o/ 

it is remarked by some historians, when speak- 
ing of the death of Alexander the Great, that 
even in the warm climate of Babylon, his body 
kept for several days without corruption, from 
which it has been inferred, that he did not die of 
poison, but of hard-drinking*. That a dead 
body can be preserved in spirits of wine, is well 
known ; but it is not equally certain that the 
body can be preserved by drinking them before 
death. It might, however, be a part of the pro- 
cess which has been just mentioned ; the body 
might be so far charged with hydrogen, as to 
undergo a slighter combustion, that might in a 
manner toast it without burning. It is notorious 
©f this military tiger, that he was a monstrous 
drunkard ; and as fond of wine as he was of hu- 
man blood. It is to be regretted that his body 
could not be preserved to the present day, as it 
would have filled a niche in the Louvre for the 
First Consul of France. 

Some of my readers may have made the re- 
mark, that the face of particular drunkards, at 
certain times, appears as much like a burning 
coal as any thing can well be conceived. It was 
probably a face of this kind, that suggested 

* Robertson's History of Greece, p. 4,27. 



68 

Shakspeare's description of Bardolph's nose^. 
n Falstaff. Thou art our Admiral, thou bcarest 
" the lanthern in the poop, but 'tis in the nose of 
" thee ; thou art the knight of the burning lamp. 
M I never see thy face but I think upon hell-fire: 
" but for the light in thy face, thou art the son of 
i€ utter darkness. When thou ran'st up Gads- 
" hill in the night to catch my horse, if I did not 
" think thou hadst been an ignis fatuas, or a ball 
" of wild-fire, there's no purchase in money* 
w Thou hast saved me a hundred marks in links 
u and torches., walking with thee in the night be- 
u twixt tavern and tavern : but the sack that thou 
11 hast drank me, would have bought me lights as 
" good cheap, at the dearest chandler's in Eu- 
i; rope. I have maintained that salamander of 
" your's with fire, any time this two^and-thirty 
:< years f •" 



* As we observe our acquaintance sinking" into the habit of in- 
toxication, we can sometimes mark the rapidity of their progress, 
as the gutta rosacea sprouts on the face, till it partakes of the last 
stage, and, like Bardolph, they become knights cf the Burning' 
.Lamp ! 

\ Henry IV. P. I. Act. liL 



69 

On the combustion of the Human Body ', product d 
by the long immoderate Use of spirituous Li- 
quorsj by Pierre Aime Lair*. 

" In -natural as well as civil history there arc 
facts presented to the meditation of the observer, 
which, though confirmed by the most convinc- 
ing testimony, seem, on the first view, to be des- 
titute of probability. Of this kind is that of peo- 
ple comsumed by coming into contact with com- 
mon fire, and of their bodies being reduced to 
ashes. How can we conceive that fire, in certain 
circumstances, can exercise so powerful an ac- 
tion on the human body as to produce this-effect? 
One might be induced to give less faith to these 
instances of combustion as they seem to be rare* 
I confess that at first they appeared to me worthy 
of very little credit, but they are presented to the 
public as true, by men whose veracity seems un- 
questionable. Bianehini, Mossei, Rolli, JLe Cat, 
Vicq d'Azyr, and several men distinguished by 
their leaning, have given certain testimony of 
the facts. Besides, is it more surprising to expe- 
rience such incineration than to void saccharine 
urine, or to see the bones softened to such a 

*i?rom the Journal di Physique, Pluviose. Year. 3. 



70 
degree as to be reduced to the state of jelly ? The 
effects of this combustion are certanly not more 
wonderful than those of the bones softened, or 
©f the diabetes mellitus. This morbific disposi- 
tion, therefore, would be one more scourge to 
afflict humanity ; but in physics, facts being al- 
ways preferable to reasoning, I shall here collect 
those which appear to me to bear the impression 
ef truth ; and, lest I should alter the sense, I 
shall quote them such as they are given in the 
works from which I have extracted them. 

" We read in the transactions of Copenhagen, 
that in 1692, a woman of the lower class, who 
for three years had used spirtuous liquors to such 
excess that she would take no other nourishment, 
having sat down one evening on a straw chair to 
sleep, was consumed in the night-time, so that 
next morning no part of her was found but the 
skull, and the extreme joints of the fingers, all 
the rest of her body, says Jacobaeus, was reduced 
to ashes. 

" The following extract of the memoir of 
Bianchini, is taken from the Annual Register 
for 1763 : — The Countess Cornelia Bandi of the 
town of Cesena, aged 62, enjoyed a good state 
of health. One evening, having experienced a sort 
of drowsiness, she retted to bed, and her maid 



71 

remained with her till she fell asleep. Next 
morning when the girl entered to awaken her mis- 
tress, she found nothing but the remains of her 
mistress in a most horrid condition At the dis- 
tance of four feet from the bed was a heap of ash- 
es, in which could be distinguished the legs 
and arms untouched. Between the legs lay the 
head, the brain of which, together with half the 
posterior part of the cranium, and the whole chin 
had been consumed ; three fingers were found 
in the state of a coal ; the rest of the body was 
reduced to ashes, and contained no oil ; the tal- 
low of two candles was melted on a table, but 
the wicks still remained, and the feet of the can- 
dlesticks were covered with a certain moisture. 
The bed was not damaged, the bed-clothes and 
coverlid were .raised up and thrbwn on one side, 
as is the case when a person gets up. The fur- 
niture and tapestry were covered with a moist 
kind of soot of the colour of ashes, which had 
penetrated into the drawers and dirtied the linen. 
This soot having been conveyed to a neighbour- 
ing kitchen, adhered to the walls and the utensils. 
A piece of bread in the cupboard was covered 
with it, and no dog would touch it. The infec- 
tious odour had been communicated te other 
apartments. The Annual Register states, that 



72 
the Countess Cesena was accustomed to bathe 
all her body in camphorated spirit of wine. Bian- 
ehini caused the detail of this deplorable event to 
be published at the time when it took place, and 
no one contradicted it. It was also attested by 
Scipio MafFei, a learned cotemporary of Bianchi- 
ni, who was far from being credulous ; and, in 
the last place; this surprising fact was confirmed 
to the Royal Society of London by Paul Rolli. 
The Annual Register mentions also two other 
facts of the same kind which occurred in Eng- 
land, one at Southampton, and the other at Co- 
ventry. 

" An instance of the like kind is preserved in 
the same work*, in a letter of Mr. Wilmer, 
surgeon : — " Mary Clues, aged 50, was much 
addicted to intoxication. Her propensity to this 
vice had increased after the death of her husband, 
which happened a year and a half before, for about 
a year, scarcely a day had passed in the course 
of which she did not drink at least half a pint of 
rum or anniseed- water. Her health gradually de- 
clined, and about the beginning of February she 
was attacked by the jaundice and confined to her 
bed. Though she was incapable of much 
action, and not in a condition to work, she still 

* Annual Register for 1773, p. 78. 



continued her old habit of drinking every day and 
stnoaking a pipe of tobacco. The bed in which 
she lay stood parallel to the chimney of the apart- 
ment, the distance from it of about three feet. 
On Saturday morning, the 1st of March, she fell 
on the floor, and her extreme weakness having 
prevented her from getting up, she remained in 
that state till some one entered and put her to 
bed. The following night she wished to be left 
alone ; a woman quitted her at half past eleven, 
and, according to custom, shut the door and 
locked it. She had put on the fire two large 
pieces of coal, and placed a light in a candle- 
stick on a chair at the head of the bed. At half 
after five in the morning, a smoke was seen 
issuing through the window, and the door being 
speedily broke open, some flames which were in 
the room were soon extinguished. Between the 
bed and the chimney were found the remains of 
the unfortunate Clues ; one leg and a thigh were 
still entire, but there remained nothing of the 
skvn, the muscles, and the viscera. The bones 
oi the cranium, the breast, the spine, and the up- 
per extremities, were entirely calcined, and 
covere j with a whitish efflorescence. The people 
were much surprised that the furniture had sus- 
tained so little injury. The side of the bed 

G 



74 

which was next to the chimney, had suffered the 
most ; the wood of it was slightly burnt, but the 
feather-bed, the clothes, the covering, were safe. 
I entered the apartment about two hours after it 
had been opened, and observed that the walls 
and every thing in it were blackened ; that it 
was filled with a very disagreeable vapour ; but 
that nothing except the body exhibited any 
strong traces of fire." 

" This instance has great similarity to that re- 
lated by Vicq d'Azyr in the Encyclopedic Me- 
thodique, under the head Pathologic Anatomy of 
Man. A woman about 50 years of age, who 
indulged to excess in spirituous liquors, and got 
drunk every day before she went to bed, was 
found entirely burnt and reduced to ashes. 
Some of the osseous parts only w r ere left, but 
the furniture of the apartment had suffered very 
little damage. Vicq d'Azyr, instead of disbe- 
lieving this phenomenon, adds, that there has 
been many other instances of the like kind. 

" We find also a circumstance of this kind 
in a work intitled Acta Medica et Philosophica 
Hafniensia ; and in the work of Henry Bohanser, 
intitled Le Nouveau Phosphore enflam?, a wo- 
man at Paris who had been accustomed for 
three years, to drink spirit of wine to such a 



75 

degree that she used no other liquor, was one 
day found entirely reduced to ashes, except the 
skull and extremities of the fingers. 

" The transactions of the Royal Society of 
London present also an instance of human com- 
bustion no less extraordinary. It was mention- 
ed at the time it happened in all the journals ; 
it was then attested by a great number of eye-wit- 
nesses, and became the subject of many learned 
discussions. Three accounts of this event by 
different authors, all nearly coincide. The fact 
is related as follows : — " Grace Pitt, the wife of 
a fishmonger of the parish of St. Clement, Ips- 
wich, aged about 60, had contracted a habit, 
which she continued for several years, of coming 
down every night from her bed-room, half-dress- 
ed, to smoke a pipe. On the night of the 9th of 
April 1744, she got up from bed as usual. Her 
daughter, who slept with her, did not perceive 
she was absent till next morning when she 
awoke, soon after which she put on her clothes, 
and going down into the kitchen, found her 
mother stretched out on the right side, with her 
head near the grate ; the body extended on the 
hearth, with the legs on the floor, which was of 
deal, having the appearance of a log of wood, con- 
sumed by a fire without apparent flame. On be- 



76 

holding this spectacle, the girl ran in great haste 
and poured over her mother's body some water 
contained in two large vessels in order to extin- 
guish the fire ; while the foetid odour and smoke 
which exhaled from the body, almost suffocated 
some of the neighbours who had hastened to the 
girl's assistance. The trunk was in some mea- 
sure incinerated, and resembled a heap of coals 
covered with white ashes. The head, the arms, 
the legs, and the thighs, had also participated In 
the burning. This woman, it is said, had drunk 
a large quantity of spirituous liquor in conse- 
quence of being overjoyed to hear that one of 
her daughters had returned from Gibraltar. 
There was no fire in the grate, and the candle 
had burnt entirely out in the socket of the can- 
dlestick, which was close to her. Besides, there 
were found near the consumed body, £he clothes 
of a child and a paper screen, which had sustain- 
ed no injury by the fire. The dress of this wo- 
man consisted of a cotton gown." 

" Le Cat, in a memoir on spontaneous burn- 
ing, mentions several other instances of com- 
bustion of the human body. " Having," says 
he, " spent several months at Rheims in the 
years 1724 and 1725, I lodged at the house of 
Sieur Millet, whose wife got intoxicated every 



77 
day. The domestic economy of the family was 
managed by a pretty young girl, which I must 
not omit to remark, in order that all the circum- 
stances which accompanied the fact I am about 
to relate, may be better understood. This wo- 
man was found consumed on the 20th of Februa- 
ry 1725, at the distance of a foot and a half from 
the hearth in her kitchen. A part of the head 
only, with a portion of the lower extremities and 
a few of the vertebrae had escaped combustion, 
A foot and a half of the flooring under the body 
had been consumed, but a kneading trough and 
a powdering-tub, which were very near the 
body, sustained no injury. M. Christeen, a sur- 
geon, examined the remains of the body with 
every judicial formality. Jean Millet, the hus- 
band, being interrogated by the judges w 7 ho in- 
stituted the inquiry into the affair, declared, that 
about eight in the evening on the 19th of Febru- 
ary, he had retired to rest with his wife, who not 
being able to sleep, had gone into the kitchen, 
where he thought she was warming herself; that, 
having fallen asleep, he was wakened about two 
o'clock with an infectious odour, and that having 
run to the kitchen, he found the remains of his 
wife in the state described in the report of the 
physicians and surgeons. The judges having no 

G2 



78 

suspicion of the real cause of this event, prose- 
cuted the affair with the utmost diligence. It 
was very unfortunate for Millet that he had a 
handsome servant-maid, for neither his probity 
nor innocence was able to save him from the sus- 
picion of having got rid of his wife by a concert- 
ed plot, and of having arranged the rest of the 
circumstances in such a manner as to give it the 
appearance of an accident. He experienced, 
therefore, the whole severity of the law ; and 
though, by an appeal to a superior and very en- 
lightened court, which discovered the cause of 
the combustion, he came off victorious, he suf- 
fered so much from uneasiness of mind, that he 
was obliged to pass the remainder of his melan- 
choly days in an hospital. 55 

" Le Cat relates another instance, which has a 
most perfect resemblance to the preceeding: — 
" M. Boinneau, cure of Plerquer, near Dol," 
says he, " wrote to me the following letter, dated 
February 22d, 1749 : — Allow me to communi- 
cate to you a fact which took place here about a 
fortnight ago. Madame deBoiseon, 80yearsof age, 
exceedingly meagre, who had drunk nothing but 
spirits for several years, was sitting in her elbow- 
chair before the fire, while her waiting-maid went 
out of the room a few moments. On her re- 



79 
turn, seeing her mistress on fire, she immediately 
gave an alarm, and some people having come to 
her assistance, one of them endeavoured to ex- 
tinguish the flames with his hands, but they ad- 
hered to it as if it had been dipped in brandy or 
oil on fire. Water was brought and thrown on 
the lady in abundance, yet the fire appeared more 
violent, and was not extinguished till the whole 
flesh had been consumed. Her skeleton, exceed- 
ingly black, remained entire in the chair, which 
was only a little scorched ; one leg only, and the 
two hands, detached themselves from the rest of 
the bones. It is not known whether her clothes 
had caught fire by approaching the grate. The 
lady was in the same place in which she sat every 
day ; there was no extraordinary fire, and she 
had not fallen. What makes me suppose that 
the use of spirits might have produced this effect 
is, that I have been assured, that at the gate of 
Dinan an accident of the like kind happened to 
another woman under similar circumstances. 55 

" To these instances, which I have multiplied 
to strengthen the evidence, I shall add two other 
facts of the same kind, published in the Journal 
de Medicine*. The first took place at Aix in 
Provence, and is thus related by Muraire, a sur 

*Vol.lix.p.440. 



80 

geon : " In the month of Februaiy 1779, Mary 
Jauffret, widow of Nicholas Gravier, shoemaker, 
of a small size, exceedingly corpulent, and ad- 
dicted to drinking, having been burnt in her a- 
partment, M. Rocas, my colleague, who was 
commissioned to make a report respecting her 
body, found only a mass of ashes, and a few bones, 
calcined in such a manner that on the least pres- 
sure they were reduced to dust. The bones of 
the cranium, one hand, and a foot had in part 
escaped the action of the fire. Near these re- 
mains stood a table untouched, and under the ta- 
ble a small wooden stove, the grating of which, 
having been long burnt, afforded an aperture, 
through which, it is probable, the fire that occasi- 
oned the melancholy accident had been commu- 
nicated : one chair, which stood too near the 
■flames, had the seat and fore-feet burnt. In 
other respects there was no appearance of fire, 
either in the chimney or the apartment ; so that, 
except the fore-pai l t of the chair, it appears to 
me that no other combustible matter contributed 
to this speedy incineration, which was effected in 
the space of seven or eight hours.*' 

" The other instance mentioned in the Jour- 
nal de Medicine *-, took place in Caen, and is 

♦Vol.lix.p. 140. 



81 
thus related by Merillc, a surgeon of that city, 
still alive : " Being requested, on the 3d of June 
1782, by the king's officers, to draw up a report 
of the state in which I found Mademoiselle 
Thuars, who was said to have been burnt, I made 
the following observations : — The body lay 
with the crown of the head resting against one 
of the andirons, at the distance of eighteen inches 
from the fire, the remainder of the bo r ly was 
placed obliquely before the chimney, the whole 
being nothing but a mass of ashes, Even the 
most solid bones had lost their form and consis- 
tence none of them could be distinguished ex- 
cept the coronal, the two parietal bones, the two 
lumber vertebrae, a portion of the tibia, and a 
part of the ommoplate ; and these, even, were 
so calcined that they became dust by the least 
pressure. The right foot was found entire, and 
scorched at its upper junction ; the left was more 
burnt. The day was cold, but there was noth- 
ing in the grate except two or three bits of wood 
about an inch diameter, burnt in the middle. 
None of the furniture in the apartment was 
damaged. The chair on which Mademoiselle 
Thuars had been sitting was found at the dis- 
tance of a foot from her, and absolutely untouch- 
ed. I must here observe, that this ladv was ex- 



82 

seedingly corpulent ; that she was above sixty 
years of age, and much addicted to spirituous li- 
quors ; that the day of her death she had crunk 
three bottles of wine and about a bottle of brandy; 
and that the consumption of the body 1 ad taken 
place in less 'than seven hours, though, according 
to appearance, nothing around the body was 
burnt but the clothes. 5 ' 

" The town of Caen affords several other in- 
stances of the same kind. I have been told by 
many people, and particularly a physician of Ar- 
gentan, named BoufFet, author of an essay on in- 
termittent fevers, that a woman of the lower class, 
who lived at Place Villars, and who was known 
to be much addicted to strong liquors, had been 
found in her house burnt. The extremities of 
her body only were spared, but the furniture was 
very little damaged. 

*' A like unfortunate accident happened also 
at Caen, to another old woman addicted to drink- 
ing, I was assured, by those who told me the 
fact, that the flames which proceeded from the 
body, could not be extinguished by water ; but 
I think it needless to relate this, and the particu- 
lars of another event which took place in the 
same town, because they were not attested by a 
proces-verbal> and not having been -communis 



cated by professional men, they do not inspire the 
same degree of confidence. 

•J This collection of instances is supported, 
therefore, by all those authentic proofs which 
can be acquired to form human testimony ; for, 
while we admit the prudent doubt of Descartes, 
we ought to reject the universal doubt of the 
Pyrrhonists. The multiplicity and uniformity 
even of these facts, which occurred in different 
places, and were attested by so many enlightened 
men, carry with them conviction; they have 
such a relation to each other, we are inclined to 
ascribe them to the same cause. 

" I. The persons who experienced the effects 
of this combustion, had for a long time made an 
immoderate use of spirituous liquors. 

u II. The combustion took place only in wo- 
men. 

" III. These women were far advanced ■ in 
life. 

" IV. Their bodies did not take fire sponta- 
neously, but were burnt by accident. 

" V. SThe extremities, such as the feet and 
hands, were generally spared by the fire. 

" VJ. Water sometimes, instead of extinguish- 
ing the names which proceeded from the parts on 
Are, gave them more activity. 



84 

M VII. The fire did very little damage, and 
often spared the combustible objects, which were 
in contact with the human body at the moment 
when it was burning. 

" VIII. The combustion of the bodies left, as 
a residuum, fat foetid ashes, with an unctuous, 
stinking, and very penetrating soot, 

" Let Us now enter into an examination of 
these eight general observations. 

" The first idea which occurs on reading the 
numerous instances of human combustion above 
related, is, that those who fell victims to those fa- 
tal accidents were almost all addicted to spirit- 
uous liquors. The woman mentioned in the 
transactions of Copenhagen had w f three years 
made such an immoderate use of them that she 
would take no other nourishment. Mary Clues, 
for a year before the accident happened, had 
scarcely been for a single day without drinking 
half a pint of rum or anniseed- water. The wife 
of Millet had been continually intoxicated ; Ma- 
dame de Boiseon for several years had drunk no- 
thing but spirits ; Mary JaufFret was much ad- 
dicted to drinking ; and Mademoiselle Thu ars, 
and the other women of Caen, were equally fond 
of strong liquors. 



Such excess, in regard to the use of spiritu- 
acts liquors, must have had a powerful effect on 
the bodies of the persons to whom I allude. All 

ir fluids and solids must have experienced its 

j influence ; for the property of the absorbing 
vessels, which is so active in the human body, 
seems on this occasion to have acted a distin- 
guished part. It has been observed that the 
urine of great drinkers is generally aqueous and 
limpid. It appears that in drunkards, who make 
an immoderate use of spirituous liquors, the 
aqueous part of their drink is discharged by the 
urinary passage, while the alfcohoiic, alftiqst like 
the volatile part of the aromatic substances, not 
being subjected to an entire decomposition, is 
absorbed into every part of their bodies. 

" I shall now proceed to the second general 
observation, that the combustion took place only 
in women. 

" I will no pretend to assert that men are not 
liable to combustion in the same manner : but I 
have never yet been able to find one well-certi- 
fied instance of such an event ; and as we cannot 
proceed with any certainty but on the authority 
of facts, I think this Angularity so surprising as 
to give rise to a few reflections. Perhaps wiicii 
the cause is examined, it will appear penectly 

H 



86 

natural. The female body is in general more 
delicate than that of the other sex. The system 
of their solids is more relaxed ; their fibres are 
more fragile and of a weaker structure ; and 
therefore their texture more easily hurt. Their 
mode of life also contributes to increase the weak- 
ness of their organization. Women, abandoned 
in general to a sedentary life, charged with the 
care of the internal domestic economy, and often 
shut up in close apartments, where they are con- 
demned to spend whole days without taking any 
exercise, are more subject than men to become 
corpulent. The texture of the soft parts in fe- 
male bodies being more spungy, absorption ought 
to be freer ; and as their whole bodies imbibe 
spirituous liquors with more ease, they ought to 
experience more readily the impression of fire. 
Hence that combustion, the melancholy in- 
stances of which seem to be furnished by women 
alone ; and it is owing merely to the want of a 
certain concurrence of circumstances and of 
physical causes, that these events, though less 
rare than is supposed, do not become more com- 
mon. 

" The second general observation serves to ex- 
plain the third ; I mean, that the combustion 
took place only in women far advanced in life. 



87 
The Countess of Cesena was 62 years of age ; 
Mary Clues, 52 ; Grace Pitt, 60 ; Madame de 
Boiseon, 80 ; and Mademoiselle Thuars, more 
than 60, The examples prove that combustion 
is more frequent among old women. Young 
persons, distracted by other passions, are not 
much addicted to drinking ; but when love, de- 
parting along with youth, leaves a vacuum in the 
mind, if its place be not supplied by ambition or 
interest, a taste for gaming, or religious fervour, 
it generally falls a prey to intoxication. This 
passion still increases as the others diminish, 
especially in women who can indulge it without 
restraint. Wilmer, therefore, observes, " that 
;< the propensity of Mary Clues to this vice had 
" always increased after the death of her husband^ 
" which happened about a year before :" almost 
all the other women, of whom I have spoken, 
being equally unconfined in their actions, could 
gratify their attachment to spirituous liquors 
without opposition. 

" It may have been observed, that the obesity 
of women, as they advance in life, renders them 
more sedentary ; and if, as has been remarked by 
Baume *, a sedentary life overcharges the body 

* Essai du Systeme Chemique de la Science de i'Homsie. 



SB 
with hydrogen, this effect must be still more sen- 
sible among old women. Dancing and walking, 
which form salutary recreation for young per- 
sons, are, at a certain age, interdicted as much 
by nature as by prejudice. It needs, therefore, 
excite no astonishment that old women, who are 
in general more corpulent and more addicted to 
drinking, and who are often motionless like in- 
animated masses, during the moment of intoxi- 
cation, should experience the effects of combus- 
tion. 

" Perhaps we have no occasion to go very far 
to search ior the cause of these combustions. 
The fire of the wooden stove, the chimney, or of 
the candle, might have been communicated to the 
clothes, and might have in this manner burnt the 
persons above mentioned, on account of the pe- 
culiar disposition of their bodies. Maffei ob- 
serves that the Countess of Cesena was accustom- 
ed to bathe her whole body with spirit of wine ; 
the vicinity of the candle and lamp, which were 
found near the remains of her body, occasioned, 
without doubt, the combustion. This accident 
reminds us of what happened to Charles II. King 
of Navarre. This prince, being addicted to 
drunkenness and excesses of every kind, had 
caused himself to be wrapped up in cloths dip- 



89 
pcd in spirits, in order to revive the natural heat 
of his body, which had been weakened through 
debauchery; but the clothes caught lire while 
his attendants were fastening them, and he perish- 
ed a victim of his imprudence. 

" Besides accidental cumbustion, it remains 
for us to examine whether spontaneous combus- 
tion of the human body can take place, as assert- 
ed by Le Cat. Spontaneous combustion is the 
burning of the human boby without the con- 
tact of any substance in a state of ignition. Na- 
ture, indeed, affords several instances of sponta- 
neous combustion in the mineral and vegetable 
kingdoms. The decomposition of pyrites, and 
the subterranean processes which are carried on 
in volcanos, afford proofs of it. Coal-mines may 
readily take fire spontaneously ; and this has been 
found to be the case \fith heaps of coals deposited 
in close places. It is by a iermentation of this 
kind that dunghills sometimes become hot, and 
take fire. This may also serve to explain why 
trusses of hay, carried home during moist 
weather, and piled up on each other, sometimes 
take fire. But, can spontaneous combustion 
~ake place in the human body ? If some authors 

H2. 



90 
are to credited*, very violent combustion may 
be produced in our bodies by nature, and by ar- 
tificial processes. Sturmius f says, that in the 
northern countries flames often burst from the 
stomach of a person in a state of intoxication. 
Three noblemen of Courland having laid a bet 
which of them could drink the most spirits, two of 
them died in consequence of suffocation, by the 
flames which issued with great violence from their 
stomachs. We are told by Thomas BartholinJ, 
on the authority of Vorstius, that a soldier, who 
had drunk two glasses of spirits, died after an ir- 
ruption of flames from his mouth. In his third 
century Bartholin mentions another accident of 
the same kind after a drinking match of strong 
liquor. 

" It now remains to decide, from these in- 
stances, respecting the accidental or spontaneous 
causes which produce combustion. Nature, by 
assuming a thousand different forms, seems at- 
first as if desirous to elude our observation ; but, 
on mature reflection, if it be found easy to prove 
accidental combustion, spontaneous combustion 
appears altogether improbable ; for, even admit- 

* German Ephemerides, Observ. 77. 
■\ Ibid. Tenth Year, p. 55, 
i First Century. 



91 

ting the instances of people suffocated by flames 
from their mouths, this is still far from the combus- 
tion of the whole body. There is a great differ- 
ence between semi- combustion and spontaneous 
combustion, so complete as to reduce the body 
to ashes, as in the cases above mentioned : as the 
human body has never been seen to experience 
total combustion, these assertions seem rather the 
productions of a fervid imagination than of real 
observation ; and it too often happens that nature 
in her mode of action, does not adopt our manner 
of thinking. 

" I shall not extend further these observations 
on the combustion of the human body, as I flat- 
ter myself that after this examination every per- 
son mast be struck with the relation which exists 
between the cause of this phenomenon and the ef- 
ects that ensue. A system embelished with im- 
aginary charms is often seducing, but it never 
presents a perfects whole. We have seen facts 
justify reasoning, and reasoning serve afterwards 
to explain facts. The combustion of the human 
body, which, on the first view, appears to have in 
it something of the marvellous, when explained 
exhibits nothing but the utmost simplicity : so 
true it is, that the wonderful is often produced by 
effects which, as they rarely strike our eyes, per- 



92 

mit our minds so much the less to discover their 
real cause. 

" Some people may, however, ascribe to the 
wickedness of mankind what we ascribe to acci- 
dent. It may be said that assassins, after putting 
to death their unfortunate victims, rubbed over 
their bodies with combustible substances, by 
which they were consumed. But even if snch 
an idea should ever be conceived, it would be 
impossible to carry it into execution. Former- 
ly, when criminals were condemned to the flames 
what a quantity of combustible substances was 
necessary to burn their bodies ! A baker's boy, 
named Renaud, being condemned to be burnt a 
few years ago at Caen, two large cart-loads of 
faggots were required to consume the body, and 
at the end of more than ten hours some remains 
of the bones were still to be seen. What proves 
that the combustion in the before- mentioned in- 
stance was not artificial is, that people often arri- 
ved at the moment when it had taken place, and 
that the body was found in its natural state. 
People entered the house of Madame Boiseon at 
the time when her body was on fire, and all the 
neighbours saw it. Besides, the people of whom 
I have spoken were almost all of the lowest class, 
and not much calculated to give rise to the com- 



93 

■mission of such a crime. The woman mention- 
ed in the transactions of Copenhagen was of the 
poorest condition ; Grace Pitt was the wife of a 
fishmonger ; Mary Jauffret, that of a shoemaker; 
and two other women, who resided at Caen, he- 
longed to the lowest order of society. It is incon. 
testable, then, that in the instances I have addu- 
ced, the combustion was always accidental, and 
never intentional. 

" It may be seen, that a knowledge of the 
causes of this phenomenon is no less interesting, 
to criminal justice than to natural history, for 
unjust suspicions may sometimes fall on an in- 
nocent man. Who will not shudder on recol- 
lecting the unfortunate inhabitant ot Rheims, who 
after having lost his wife' by the effect of com- 
bustion, was in danger of perishing himself on 
the scaffold, condemned unjustly by an ignorant 
tribunal! 

" I shall consider myself happy if this picture 
of the fatal effects of intoxication makes an im- 
pression on those addicted to this vice, and par- 
ticularly on women, who most frequently become 
the victims of it. Perhaps the frightful details 
of so horrid an evil as that of con) bust ion will re 
claim drunkards from this horrid practice. Plu- 
tarch relates, that at Sparta children were deterred 



94 

from drunkenness by exhibiting to them the spec- 
tacle of intoxicated slaves, who, by their contor- 
tions, filled the mind of these young spactators 
with so much contempt that they never after- 
wards got drunk. This state of drunkenness 
however, was only transitory. How much more 
horrid it appears in those unfortunate victims 
consumed by the flames and reduced to ashes ! 
May men never forget that the vine sometimes 
produces very bitter fruit, — disease, pain, re- 
pentance, and death !" 



How far are the Acts of a Drunkard to be 
palliated ? 

This is a point of great importance in civili- 
zed society : but it is not the province of the 
physician to decide with a legal view. Every 
human being, who was ever intoxicated, must 
have found, on reflection, that he had said and 
done things which he would have neither thought 
of or acted in a state of sobrietj\ The peace of 
his neighbour has, therefore, required that the 
drunkard should answ r er for his conduct. But 
it may be asked, ought a madman to answer for 
his deeds ? Certainly : The man who becomes 



95 
mad from immoderate vinous potation must be 
amenable to law, because that madness was of 
his own seeking. — Again, it may be said, that 
the drunken man, being as much in a state of 
delirium as any maniac, ought he to be punished 
for doing what he was unconscious of ? Yes : 
But punishment might be mitigated here, if it 
shall appear that no preconceived malice had 
prompted him. This is, I think, what lawyers 
call mal prepense. — Were a man, during ebriety, 
to sign a deed, by which he should dispose of 
his property in an improper manner, to the injury 
of his family ; quere, would such a deed be le- 
gal ? It might be deemed legal ; but to me it 
would appear unjust to confirm it; because the 
man never formed such a resolution when he was 
in his senses. The acts of the drunkard, in this 
respect, ought not to be valid : for this plain 
reason, in the same condition he is not allowed 
to injure his neighbour, or society at large, with 
impunity ; and therefore he ought not to be per- 
mitted to injure either his family or himself. All 
debts incurred, or money lost at play, in the state 
of intoxication, ought to be declared null^ on the 
loser appealing in a proper manner when sober. 
This would prevent the gamester and systematic 
villain from taking advantage of the honest man. 



96 

and would correct some of the greatest evils in 
the community. 

When a drunken man is lavish of promises 
which he never made when sober ; be assured, 
his kindness is not worth your thanks. 

When you hear a drunken man boasting of 
his generosity to his friends ; beware, how you 
receive a favour from that man. 

When you hear a drunken man telling family 
secrets, whether of his ovvii, or those of other peo- 
ple ; put that man down for a fool ; and take 
care what you say in his presence. 

When you hear a drunken man boasting of 
his favours from the sex ; be assured, that man 
has no honour. 

When you hear a drunken man bragging 
of his courage ; mark that man a coward. 

When v ou hear a drunken man vaunting of 
his riches ; be assured, he cannot be estimable for 
his virtues. 

When you hear a drunken man pitying mis- 
fortunes which he did not relieve whea sober ; 
it is the strongest proof that he possesses no good- 
ness of heart. 

Receive no donations from a drunken man; 
lest he should ask them again, when sober. 



Avoid the company of a drunkard ; for if he 
insults you, and you should insist on satisfaction 
he will plead want of recollection, as apology. 

Let the sober man beware of the society of 
drunkards, lest the world should say, that he 
means to take an advantage of their credulity. 

In how much is the drunkard guilty of suicide, 
that expires during the paroxysm, after the im- 
moderate use of spirituous liquors ? 



98 



CHAP. IV. 

The Catalogue of Diseases induced by Drunken- 
ness. 



-An anxious stomach well 



May be endur'd; so may the throbbing head: 
But such a dim delirium, such a dream, 
Involves you; such a dastardly despair 
Unmans your soul as madd'ning Pentheus felt, 
When, baited round Cithseron's cruel sides, 
He saw two Suns, and double Thebes ascend. 

Armstrong. 



THIS head very naturally divides itself into 
two parts. 

I Section I. 

The Diseases which appear during the Paroxysm 
of Drunkenness. 

As I have purposely avoided the natural his- 
tory of wine, and said but little of its chemical 
qualities ; so I shall not take notice in this place 
of some diseases, that arise rather from the adul- 
teration of vinous liquors, than the effect of ar- 



99 
dent spirit. Of this description is the cohca 
pictonum, occasioned by the nefarious introduc- 
tion of lead, in order to correct the acid taste of 
wines. The first and most fatal disease of our 
catalogue is, 

Apoplexy*. 

The last degree of ebriety is apoplexy ; a pri- 
vation of sense and motion, while respiration, 
and the action of the heart and arteries remain. 
This disease may be occasioned in two ways 
during drunkenness. The powerful stimulus of 
alkohol may directly act on the nervous system, 
and assail the principle of life. Or it may in- 
duce apoplexy, through the intervention of the 
sanguiferous system, which, by being inordinate- 
ly surcharged and stimulated, may cause such 
an accumulation of blood, in the vessels of the 
head, as to bring on apoplexy, by compressing 
the brain, the source of sense and motion. The 
first will most readily be induced by the ingur- 
gitation of a large quantity of raw or undiluted 
spirit ; and the last will follow the slower mode 
of intoxication, from wine or strong malt li- 
quor. 

* Apoplexia Temulenta Sauv. Sp. 3. 



100 
When sudden death takes place, during 
drunkenness, it must be in the manner now de- 
scribed. And when a large quantity of ardent 
spirit is swallowed at once, it acts so suddenly 
on the stomach, and by consent with the whole 
of the nervous system, that the common phe- 
nomena of ebriety do not take place. There is 
no time given for the regular succession of those 
feelings and passions, which under the more tardy 
exhibition of' wine, always appear. It approaches 
at once to the most dangerous point; for the 
man often falls down insensible, as soon as he 
has finished the draught. Nor, on these occa- 
sions, does the countenance shew any unusual 
signs of colour or fulness : on the contrary, I 
have always observed the face pale and contract- 
ed. Arsenic has seldom been taken in such 
quantity as to destroy life so quickly as ardent 
spirit. Indeed that metallic poison, probably 
acts by first decompounding the organization 
of the stomach ; whereas the other more di- 
rectly assails the vital principle in the nervous 
system itself. In such a case, medical practice 
could avail but little ; unless sufficient life re- 
mained for throwing in warm water, or any 
aqueous or even milky liquid at hand, to dilute 
the spirit, and facilitate its evacuation by vomit- 



101 
irig. Vomiting in all stages of temulency is sa 
lutary. Nature in this points to her own relief. 
It is here, as when opium has been taken in great 
quantities, whether by design or mistake ; if 
vomiting comes on there is no danger. 

But in particular habits of body, more than 
others, ebriety tends to apoplexy. Physicians 
have, therefore, marked a condition of body, 
under the appellation of the apoplectic make^ or 
form. This form consists, in fulness of blood, a 
large head, short neck, &c, which, when joined 
to advanced age, pave the way to comatose af- 
fect : ons. When large quantities of wine, or 
spirituous liquors, are drank after a full meal of 
rich food, in such a habit of body, there is much 
danger of apoplexy* Here the blood vessels be- 
come distended with an immense increase of 
chyle, mixed with vinous spirit, and both highly 
stimulating. It is commonly after the approach 
of sleep, that the drunkard is seized with apo- 
plexy, when the digestive process sends forth a 
copious supply of blood newly prepared. But 
the state of sleep itself at all times favours the ac- 
cession of this disease. This may, in part, be 
accounted for, from the increase of povvfif it 
gives to digestion ; and in part, to the less ex- 
panded state of the lungs, and diminution of ex- 

x ^ 



102 
ternal stimuli, by the attention of the system being 
passive*. The mechanical effect of an overload- 
ed stomach, compressing the descending aorta, is 
also said to have considerable share in the pro- 
duction of apoplexy. 

The proximate cause of apoplexy, as appears 

by dissection, is blood or serum effused into the 

ventricles of the brain ; or between the dura 

mater, pia mater, and brain, and the cranium. 

These, by compressing the medullary substance 

and origin of the nerves, cause the abolition of 

sense and motion. Among persons in the habit 

of bibacity this kind of death is frequent ; for 

predisposition is by that means acquired. The 

circulation of the blood through the substance 

of the brain becomes, by every fit of drunkenness 

more impeded by the obliteration of small vessels; 

hardening and ossification of particular parts ; 

while the sinuses and vessels on the surface are 

unusually distended. As drinkers of porter and 

ale are most liable to the florid apoplexy, may 

not this, in great measure, be attributed to the 

great supply of nourishing matter which these li- 

* I do not here allude to the Stahlian doctrine of an administer- 
ing soul,- but, that while sensation is diminished, the natural func- 
tions of digestion go on more briskly, and yield a greater quanti- 
ty of chyle. 



103 

quors afford ; and to the bitters, and narcoi 
drugs, which are fraudulently mixed with them, 
as mentioned before ? the drinker of malt 
liquor grows fat and corpulent ; while the drin- 
ker of spirits becomes thin and emaciated. 

I have, in the former chapter, said that purl 
drinkers were very liable to apoplexy and palsy. 
Bitters of all kinds seem to possess a narcotic 
power ; and, when used for a censiderable length 
of time, destroy the sensibility of the stomach. 
This is a class of medicines that requires much 
caution in the treatment of dyspeptic complaints, 
what are called weak disgestion. A celebrated 
medicine, some years ago, for the gout, was offer- 
ed to the public, under the name of the Port- 
land Powder*. It was composed chiefly of bit- 
ters ; and though it was known to alleviate, or 
cure the gout, it was always at the expence of 
the constitution : for, in the space of a few months 
after the arthritic affection disappeared, apoplexy, 
palsy, and dropsy, commenced, and soon proved 
fatjl to the patient. The purl drinker is expen- 
sed to similar danger ; and, sooner or later, 
must suffer for his indulgence, by an attack from 
those dreadful maladies. Some people are very 
fond of herb-ale, and diet drinks, the ingredients 

* Cullen's First Lines, Gout. 



104 
©f .which are bitter herbs and roots, and arc 
equally pernicious when continued long, or fre- 
quently resorted to. 

When apoplexy has once affected a person, in 
the advanced period of life, even if temperate in 
modes of living, it ought to be a veto against 
the use of all spirituous or fermented liquors. 
In such conditions of body, it is surprising how 
small a quantity of wine will induce stupor. — A 
gentleman of my acquaintance was subject to 
periodical apoplexy, (for such I presume to 
call it, from the frequent, attacks,) for the last 
three years of his life. Such was the recurrence of 
this disease, that certain signs of plethora always 
indicated an approaching fit, From these premises, 
I often foretold to his relations the exact period of a 
new paroxysm. Some paralytic tffecjion cm- 

ly remained after each attack, such as hesitation 
of speech; inability to retain his urine and stools, 
Sec. This gentleman was now apwards of seven- 
ty ; and had nothing besides that constituted the 
apoplectic make: he had beta accustomed to 
much country exercise ; and always very mo- 
derate m the use of wine : but now he could not 
take two glasses, without defect of voice and 
speech, and stupor coming on. Yet, in this 
situation, he had upwards of tturty distinct nts of 



105 
apoplexy, the greater part of which I saw, and he 
died in one of them. 

This disease being so frequent an attendant, 
or a consequence of vinolency holds up a most 
awful warning to the inebriate. The thought 
of a human being rushing into eternity, from a 
board of gluttony, riot, and intemperance, ought 
to appal the most depraved and obdurate of 
mortals ! 



Epilepsy*, Ifysterics, and convulsions. 

I class these diseases together, for obvious 
reasons, as they nearly acknowledge the same 
proximate cause, and are apt to occur during 
ebriety, in the same person. It is in the early 
stage of temulency that these affections chiefly 
appear ; at least before much stupor comes on ; 
and I suspect they are seldom known but where 
there is a strong predisposition. The stimulus 
of vinous spirit brings forth a large portion of 
pleasurable sensation, and induces considerable 
mobility of the nervous system ; and with these, 
great fulness and turgescency of the blood- ves- 
sels of the brain. I have known a number of 

♦-Epilepsia Plethorica Saur. Sp. % 



106 
persons, of both sexes, but particularly seamen, 
who were subject to epilepsy, and never got 
drunk without a fit coming on. Two of these 
men, unfortunately, fell overboard in that con- 
dition, and were drowned at sea. 

To those of the other sex, who happen to be 
addicted to the bottle, the hysteric affection is 
ver)r apt to occur during the paroxysm. There 
are few female drunkards that do not experience 
this : for, as fine spirits are easiest to inflame, so 
slight irritations that ruffle the temper, and excite 
anger, are seldom quieted without some degree 
of hysteric passion. In several cases, the fre- 
quent appearance of this affection has first led me 
to detect the unhappy propensity. That modesty 
which is innate in the female constitution, pre- 
serves them from indulgence in company ; and 
• they are commonly solitary dram-drinkers. This 
delicacy of feeling, sometimes carries them great 
lengths in concealing their situation ; and in 
making them feign complaints to ward off sus- 
picion. I have known a medical attendant ac- 
quire much credit from the administration of his 
catholicon; when a gentle nap had performed the 
cure of an indisposition, of which he had formed 
no conjecture.— Irregular menstruation, with all 
its evils, and abortion, in the early months of. 



107 

pregnancy, arc the frequent consequences of in- 
ebriation in the fair sex. 

I remember to have seen a woman, many years 
ago, who was much given to spirituous liquors ; 
and, when intoxicated, was often seized with a 
convulsive motion in the muscles of the lower 
part of the face, which sometimes induced a dis- 
location of the lower jaw. Violent emotions of 
passion usually brought on these convulsions. 
The common people, not inaptly, attributed the 
luxation, as a punishment from Heaven for her 
profane swearing, for she became silent the mo- 
ment it took place. The complaint was always 
remedied at the shop of a neighbouring surgeon 
and apothecary. 

Oneirodynia*: — -fearful Dreams. 

I know not weather incubus, the nightmare, is 
to be justly taken into our catalogue. Fearful 
dreams are, however, common enough towards 
the decline of the paroxysm : the fulness of the 
vessels of the brain, and perhaps also the overload- 
ed stomach, sufficiently explain them. The dream 
of the officer, who wished to fight his friend, as 

* Ephialtes Plethorica Sauv. Sp. i. 



1G8 
mentioned before, is of this kind : to which 
ought to be added, the account of the drunken 
party at Agrigentum, as quoted from Burton, in 
the last chapter. Did the memory of drunkards 
serve, I suspect, we should be furnished with 
numerous curious stories of a similar kind. 

The power which the body possesses, during 
intoxication, to resist contagion, and to bearcoi/, 
is well known : and it might probably prove a des- 
perate remedy against some diseases. But it 
ought to be remembered, that the exhausted con- 
dition of the body, after ebriety, as much-favours 
the action of marsh effluvium and infection, as the 
excited condition repelled it before. It is in this 
state that the fevers of tropical climates so readily 
seize our seamen and soldiers in the West Indies: 
the typhus contagion oi this country is also ex- 
fended in a similar manner. 



10<J 



Section II. 



The Diseases induced by habitual intoxication. 



Phlegmasia : — Inflammatory Diseases. 

The diseases of the inflammatory class, are a 
frequent consequence of intoxication; particularly 
to persons about the prime of life ; of vigorous 
constitution, a full habit of body, and easily sus- 
ceptible of stimuli. How can this be otherwise ? 
The body, by drinking fermented liquors, or 
spirits, is often excited to the last degree : un- 
dergoing, in that state, all the vicissitudes of 
temperature ; stewed sometimes in a hot room ; 
and, at another, streched along the damp and cold 
ground, in the open air, and frequently in the 
severest season. It is in this manner that phren- 
itis brain-fever, rheumatism, pleurisy, &c. are to 
be accounted for, after a fit of ehriety. 

Gastritis and enteritis, inflammations of the 
stomach and bowels, are common followers 

K 



110 

of the large use of ardent spirit. It is even 
surprizing that these diseases are not more often 
met with from this cause. The stomach is a 
highly sensible organ ; and in particular con- 
ditions of the system, cannot be stimulated to any 
great degree without partaking more or less of 
inflammation. Indeed, these diseases, in gener- 
al, are very quickly fatal : they perform the work 
of death, in the short space of a day or two ; and 
with but little warning to the patient. The pain 
and heat about the region of the stomach, deceive 
so far, that fresh quantities of spirits are taken 
clown with a view of relieving a cramp, and thus, 
in a manner, fuel is heaped on the fire. 



Ophthalmia: — Inflammation of the Eyes. 

This complaint of the eyes is one distinguish- 
ing badge of a drunkard; remarked by the vul- 
gar, as if to point him out to the finger of scorn. 
Solomon says, " Who hath woe ? who hath sor- 
u row? who hath contentions ? who hath bab- 
" bling ? who hath wounds without cause ? who 
" hath redness of eyes? They that tarry long 
"at the wine; they that go to seek mixed 



Ill 

" wine*." The wise king of Israel, who knew 
human nature well, and probably spoke from ry . 
perience, has, in this text, given a fine summary 
of the evils which follow bibacity. 

The eye is so constructed, that it readily dis- 
covers, by its turgid vessels in the tunica achate 
or white, the effects induced bv a hurried circu- 
lation. By these means it displays some of the 
most obvious phenomena of drunkenness. But 
the turgescence and redness of the coats of the 
eye do not always subside with the solution of 
the drunken paroxysm : a true inflammation 
succeeds, attended with pain, intolerance of light 
&c. ; hence specks on the eye, dimness of sight, 
and other frailties of that organ, are often per- 
manent 



Carbuncles ', and Gutta Rosacea* 

Tumors and leprous eruptions, of various siz 
and colour appear about the nose, and other 
parts of the face. The vigorous circulation, 
and determination to the head, may have some 
effect, in increasing the disposition to these cv 

♦Proverbs, Chap, xxiii. 29, 3Q 



112 

tancous affections : but I have some suspicion 
that they are induced, in a great measure, by the 
chemical qualities of alkohol, most likely by the 
evolution of hydrogen in the course of the cir~ 
culation ; and they appear in the face where the 
superficial blood vessels are more numerous than 
in any other part of the body. It is in these 
vessels that the hydrogen attracts oxygen from 
the atmosphere ; the blood in them becomes pre- 
ternaturally florid ; the skin is thus excited and 
inflamed, and the spots appear in consequence. 
Darwin* speaks of them as being sympathetic 
of diseases of the liver. Although predisposi- 
tion may touch assist here, yet, I think, from 
what I have observed, that a long use of spiritu- 
ous liquors will cause the growth of these erup- 
tions in any constitution whatever. There is 
no deformity incident to the human body 
more disgusting than this, See Shakspeare's 
description of Bardolph's' nose in the last 
chapter. 

* Zoonomis. 



113 



Hepatitis : — Inflammation of the Liver. 



Hepatic inflammation, both of the acute and 
chronic species, is a common effect of hard drink 
ing. The liver, indeed, more than other viscera, 
appears to be particularly subject to diseases 
from this cause. The vicissitudes of heat and 
cold to which the inebriate is so often exposed; 
may have some share in the production of this 
complaint, like other phlegmasia^ ; but the chief 
cause must be the spirituous stimulus. It is not 
evident whether the inflammation may be propa- 
gated from the duodenum, along the common and 
biliary ducts, to the substance of this viscus ; or 
whether the blood, highly charged with alkohol, 
may not be the means of exciting hepatitis. 
The chronic species is not a painful disease ; is 
slow in its progress, and frequently gives no alarm 
till some incurable affection is the consequence, 
It is probable that this inflammation, in some 
degree or other, always precedes the enlarged 
liver, and particularly that form of it ttyat may be 
properly called the tubercular disease of ihp 
*fiver. 

vK2 



114 



Podagra : — Gout. 



This disease, so often the companion of wealth 
and indolence, has been so frequently induced 
by excess in love and wine, that in every age it 
lias been justly styled the offspring of Venus and 
Bacchus- This fact, I believe, is sufficiently sub- 
stantiated in the records of Medicine; for gout is 
very seldom or never seen in the habitation of 
poverty and labour. 

Excess in vinous potation too often gives a 
stimulus to the other passion; but when together 
they are immoderately practised, and often re- 
peated, debility of more than a common kind is 
induced. If there is an hereditary disposition to 
gout, all excesses must be more hurtful. In 
youth hard drinking is particularly injurious ; 
it brings on premature decay ; and, more than 
any other cause, paves the way for the diseases 
of age before the meridian of life. But as the 
organs of digestion are so principally concerned 
in gout, the excess in drinking acts there with 
peculiar force. It is highly probable that the 
mere pains, and inflammation of the joints, are 
very secondary symptoms of this complaint ; and 



115 

that the only sure way to ward it off is by pre . 
serving the vigour of the digestive organs by 
mperateand abstemious living ; and by begin- 
ning early in youth to pursue a regular and active 
mode of life. These are the best security for a 
sound constitution, which alone can insure a 
happy and healthy old age. It is true, few young 
men will submit to such rigid precepts : and ex- 
perience of their truth and value is too often to be 
purchased at the expence of health. Yet there 
are many examples to be found, of men who 
have suffered misery for years, and dragged out 
a wretched existence under arthritic pains, that 
would gladly forego the pleasures of wine, had 
they life again to renew. As example is there- 
fore better than precept, the juvenile debauchee 
should be occasionally introduced into the sick 
chamber of the hoary veteran in excess. If the 
children in Lacedsemon were to be trained to 
temperance, by looking on the disgusting ac- 
tions and revelry of drunken slaves, let the 
youths of present time be instructed from the 
unwieldy joints, withered limbs, and hypochon- 
driacal glooms of our modern Arthritics, 



MS 



Schirrus of the Bowels. 

Ardent spirit hardens and contracts the animal 
iibre, and coagulates the juices. Hence the 
sensibility of different organs is gradually ex- 
hausted ; and the vessels, whether arteries, veins^ 
lymphatics, or other canals and ducts for convey- 
ing fluids, are lessened ih th^ir diameter, and 
ultimately obstructed. A schirrus of the sto- 
mach, at least of the pylorus, and liver especially, 
are frequent concomitants of habitual ebriety*. 
But the intestines, pancreas, spleen, and perhaps 
the kidneys, are also liable to the same affection; 
all of which, after a certain time, are incurable, 
and often speedily fatal. The dram and purl 
drinker may sooner experience these evils than 
other drunkards, but even the guzzler of small- 
beer has no security against them. Nay, so 
sure and uniform is this effect of producing dis- 
eased bowels, by fermented liquors, that in dis- 
tilleries aud breweries, where hogs and poultry 
are fed on the sediments of barrels, their livers 



* Vide Morgagni De Causis et Sedibus ubicunque dejectionibus 
vemulentorum disseruit. — See also Baillie's Morbid Anatomy 
Discuses of the Liver* 



117 
and other viscera are observed to be enlarged and 
hardened, like those of the human body ; and 
were these animals not killed at a certain period, 
their flesh would be unfit to eat, and their bodies 
me emaciated. 



Icterus : — Jaundice. 

This disease is frequently a consequence of 
ihe preceding one, affecting the liver ; when by 
enlargement, the biliary vessels and ducts are 
compressed, and the free egress of the bile pre- 
vented ; by which means it is, by absorbing 
vessels, carried into the circulation, and there de- 
foedutes the whole body. It is another of those 
disgusting signs which the habit of intoxication 
gives to the external form ; when jaundice ap- 
pears, it may be reckoned a prooi of the patient 
being a veteran worshipper at the shrine of 
Bacchus. 

In most cases, it may be deemed the birthright 
of clram-di inking, or the use of grog; but all 
other Hquors produce it by long continuance. 
Towards the end, the complexion and eyes, from 
being yellow, put on a sable hue, which is a 



118 
symptom of approaching dissolution. The 
drunkard should be taught to look into a glass, 
that he may spy the changes in his countenance : 
the first stage would present him with redness of 
eyes ; the second Would exhibit the carbuncled 
nose ; and the third, a yellow and black jaundice. 
In the body of the inebriate, the liver might be 
justly called the officina morborum*! 

Dyspepsia : — Indigestion* 

There are so many organs concerned in the 
processes of digestion, chylification, and san- 
guification, that we cannot be surprised at die ef- 
fects of hard drinking in deranging them : for 
the first introduction of the liquor into the body 
comes in direct contact with most of them ; such 
a$ the stomach, intestines, biliary and pancreatic 
ducts, lacteals, &c. Want of appetite and bad 
digestion are therefore common with drunkards. 
The stomach, next morning after a last night's 
debauch, is left in a state of febrile debility ; its 

* Feb. 24. I have at present a patient just recovering' from 
diseased liver and jaundice; who, by giving up the vinous stimulus 
at once, has been miraculously snatched from the verge of the 



119 

muscular power feeble and exhausted ; and the 
gastric juice vitiated and unfit to excite the de- 
sires of healthful appetite, or to perform the of- 
fice of an active solvent, in the business of pre- 
paring the food. Hence to make a good break- 
fast has always been reckoned a sign of good 
health, and a proof of temperance. The sto- 
mach, by degrees, grows torpid from immo- 
derate stimuli, and their frequent repetition, till 
it feels little inclined to receive that mild and 
bland nourishment which is usually served up 
for the morning repast. In this manner dyspep- 
tic complaints first commence ; acidity, cardial- 
gia, flatulence, and nausea, are succeeded by 
nervous irritability, and pain, which tend to fix 
the distress of the inebriate. To relieve these, 
the megrim, tedium vitcs, and hypochondriacism, 
which accompany them, he flies to his bumper. 
Thus every succeeding day's potation exceeds 
its predecessor in quantity, and he becomes a 
habitual drunkard. The morning hours of such 
a man, when neither business or rational recrea- 
tion can engage him, are spent in listless inactivi- 
ty ; he flies from trifle to trifle, expresses his 
ennui by constant yawning, and impatiently 
counts the tardy hours that shall relieve his long- 
ing for the bottle. The man who has once ex- 



120 
hibited such symptoms is on the high road to 
ruin. I have witnessed the situation of some 
drunkards, when their potation had been longer 
withheld than usual ; it is impossible to relate 
such a scene; frantic gestures* hideous yells ; 
screams of torture ; looks of despair ; groans, 
sighs, weeping, and gnashing of teeth, are but a 
describable part of it : it may iitterally be sum- 
med up in what is called the " torments of the 
" damned." 

In such cases of dyspepsia, accompanied by 
these strong mental hallucinations it is m vain to 
expect a cure from articles of medicine. The 
habit of drinking must be abandoned, and moral 
arguments, with such religious admonitions as 
inspire hope, must be speedily employed to pre? 
vent suicide or derangement of intellect. 



Hydrops : — Dropsy. 

When infractions and enlargements of the ab- 
dominal viscera take place, the dropsy, next, 
makes its appearance. The irtQ return ol blood 
to the heart is impeded ; and thus exhalation is 
increased. But the torpid and palsied state, if I 
may so cali it, of the absorbent system, best ex- 



121 

plains the accumulation of aqueous fluid m the 
several cavities. The lymphatic vc like the 

veins and arteries, possess muscular power by 
which their contents are- propelled. This muscu- 
lar power, by excessive stinuilus, is liable to be 
exhausted, as in other parts of the body, and the 
action of the absorbents is hereby lessened. 
Thus, while an increased proportion of fluid is 
effused from the relaxed exhalants, the debili- 
tated absorbents are incapable of taking it up„ 
We observe the effect oi these vessels being 
strongly stimulated in the stomach and intes- 
tines, by the thirst which succeeds the large in- 
gurgitation of ardent spirit. In the like manner 
constipation is produced, from the more fluid 
foecal matter being absorbed, while the more dry 
parts of the mass are with difficulty pressed for- 
ward. Diseases of the liver, more than others, 
seem to be followed by hydropic disposition. I 
think it requires something beyond the mechani- 
cal resistance of diseased vise era to explain this ; 
for that organ, it would appear, possesses some 
uncommon sympathy or connexion with the 
functions of the lymphatic system. Dropsy, is 
therefore, very frequently the harbinger of death 
with the inebriate. 

L 



122 



Tabes : Atrophia : — Emaciation of Body. 

These complaints naturally follow the weaken- 
ed condition of the stomach and alimentary ca- 
nal. The lacteal vessels themselves, by the fre- 
quent application of alkohol, are rendered torpid, 
constringed, or impacted ; and the glands of the 
mesentery, for the same reason, are made imper- 
vious. But when the bile, gastric and pancreatic 
juices, are all vitiated and depraved, how is it 
possible that healthful nourishment can be pre- 
pared ? I have seen, in the space of a few months, 
a man of the largest size, by the immoderate use 
of spirituous potation, reduced to a mere skele- 
ton. Even when some degree of appetite re- 
mains,, the food gives no support ; for it cannot 
pass into the blood to recruit the deficient juices; 
hence emaciation of body and all its conse- 
quences. A few weeks' indulgence in raw 
spirit, or strong grog, in large quantity, will in- 
duce these diseases. Like many others which 
follow ebriety, they give little pain ; and as the 
mental powers are lulled into stupor the greater 
part of the day, the approaches of an incurable 
malady are not sufficiently watched. 



123 



ncope : — Palpitation. 

Fainting fits and palpitation of the heart, some- 
times accompany excessive debility from habitu- 
al bibacity ; and are called nervous symptoms. 
But the most alarming degree of these evils is, 
when they are the effects of organic affections of 
the heart, pericardium, and large blood-vessels, 
A hydrothorax, dropsy of the pericardium, ossifi- 
cation of the valves of the heart, coronary arteries, 
and aorta itself have all been discovered by dis- 
section in the bodies of men subject to temulen- 
cy*. The patient commonly dies suddenly at last; 
after being long tormented with anxiety of the 
most distressing kind, frequent fainting fits, fear- 
ful dreams, that make him start from his sleep 
with signs of the utmost terror and agitation, and 
great dejection of spirits, To these may be ad- 
ded, those symptoms which constitute the "An- 
gina Pectoris" of some authors. The subjects of 
these horrid complaints seem to undergo, every 
hour, all the pangs of dissolution. They rank 
among the most fatal and terrible evils of this 
gloomy catalogue. 

* Morgagni, Lib. II. Episi. xxvi. 13—37. Epist, xxviii, 



124 



Diabetes : — Excessive Discharge of Urine. 

The majority of persons whom I have known 
subject to diabetes, were lovers of the bottle. 
About the proximate cause of this disease, vari- 
ous opinions have been given by physicians : in 
this place, therefore, I shall be permitted to refer 
it to some depravity of the organs of digestion. 
I suspect that many drunkards have this com- 
plaint upon them without taking notice of it ; and 
that it comes and goes, without creating alarm^ 
just as they happen to live regular or otherwise* 
Dr. Rollo, of the Royal Artillery at Woolwich, 
has lately published an ingenious chemical The* 
ory of Diabetes ; and his practice has been attest- 
ed by some striking cases, one of which I attend- 
ed for a short time. It there appears, that the 
saccharine urine always followed the use of malt 
liquors, and such other matter as contained the 
basis of the saccharine acid : and was cured by a 
diet in every respect highly animalised, and di- 
rectly opposite to the articles just mentioned. 
Hepatic diseases being so common from hard- 
drinking, and the bile being so important an in- 
gredient in preparing the chyle and the blood, 



125 
presumptive proofs, that diabetes may derive 
much explanation from these sources : but what 
chemical analysis can unfold the nice operations, 
and wonderful arcana of Nature ! 

It is impossible to mention the name of Dr. 
Rollo, without adverting to the valuable reforma- 
tion he has effected in the Artillery Hospital at 
Woolwich. The success of these measures af- 
fords a striking contrast to the opposition which 
I met with in attempting similar improvements 
in the naval department*. 



T 



Locked Jaw. 

This disease is more frequent in warm than 
cold climates : it has succeeded a fit of ebriety 
when the patient, in the exhausted state, has slept 
in the open air, or been exposed to the chilly 
damps of the evening. I think a case of this de- 
scription is mentioned by Dr. Girdlestone. 

Palsy. 

Tremors and paralytic affections are common 
followers of the apoplcxia temulenta. The head 

* Vide Med. Nautica; where all the late corrections are detail 
sd, and others pointed out for the information of posterity. 

L 2 



126 
and hands of some inebriates, particularly in the 
morning, shake and tremble ; but regain their 
usual strength, and become steady, as the dose 
of stimulus is repeated, lvten of this description 
are a kind of living thermometers ; as the blood 
warms, their spirits rise ; and when it cools again, 
by withholding their dram, they sink into languor 
and dejectiono When affections of this kind 
make their appearance, the wretched inebriate 
has almost finished his career of dissipation : the 
silver cord of life is nearly loosed, and the wheel 
broken at the cistern I 



Ulcers. 

When habitual intoxication has sufficiently 
weakened the solids and polluted the fluids of 
the body, it also excites diseases of the skin, that 
readily run into foul and incurable sores. In- 
stances of this kind are to be daily met with in 
private life. 

An ulcer, the most malignant of its kind, 
on record, during the late war, infested par- 
ticular ships in the Channel Fleet : and common- 
ly affected a large proportion of the crew before 
the disposition to it could be overcome. The 



127 
character of this sore was directly opposite to 
that of the scorbutic ulcer ; and what was found 
a certain cure for scurvy, had no effect on the 
Channel sore*. The least scratch on the skin, 
the puncture of a lancet, the blistered part, but 
especially scalds and burns, degenerated into this 
ulceration, with a rapidity not to be conceived* 
Large loss of muscular flesh from sloughs, and 
caries of bone, were the consequence. A long 
history of this epidemic ulcer, is given in the 
second and third volume of Medicina Nautica. 
From a fair and extensive view of all the facts 
connected with its production, I have referred 
the cause to the inordinate use of spirituous liquors* 
An unusual fostor attended this sore, beyond 
it even large sloughs occasion* 



Madness and Ideotism* 

iC Reputation ! Reputation ! Reputation ! O ! 

; I have lost my reputation ! I have lost the im- 

>c mortal part, Sir, of myself: and what remains 

* ^though I have admitted that this ulcer was much owing to 
spirituous liquors, afid, like scurvy, was aggravated oy them; yet 
there was this difference, that the sore was considered as a dis- 
ease of the port, when the crew lived on fresh meat; while the 
.scurvy was owing to privation of vegetables, and chiefly occurred 
ct tea. 



128 
' is bestial. — Drunk? and speak parrot? and 
' squabble? swagger? swear? and discourse, 
1 fustian with one's own shadow ? O, thou in- 
' visible spirit of wine, if thou hast no name to 
' be known by, let us call thee — Devil !-^-I re- 
' member a mass of things, but nothing dis- 
6 tinctly : a quarrel, but nothing wherefore.— O! 
' that men should put an enemy in their mouths, 
' to steal away their brains ! that we should with 
' joy, revel, pleasure, and applause, transform 
4 ourselves into beasts ! — I will ask him for my 
c place again : he shall tell me I am a drunkard ! 
6 Had I as many mouths as Hydra, such an 
' answer would stop them all. To be now a 
c sensible man, by and by a fool, and pre- 
1 sently a beast ! O strange ! Every inordi- 
c nate cup is unblessed, and the ingredient is a 
< Devil*." 

Drunkenness itself, is a temporary madness* 
But in constitutions where there is a predisposi- 
tion to insanity and idealism, these diseases are 
apt to succeed the paroxysm, and will often last 
weeks and months after it. Wounds and contu- 
sions of the brain and cranium, with other or- 
ganic lesions, have a similar effect. I have 
known numberless instances of these kinds of 

* Shakspeare, Othello 



129 
Ma nd Amentia^. In courts of just 

often hear of men, who are convicted of im- 
proper conduct, pleading for mitigation of 
punishment, from acting under temporary in- 
sanity. A small quantity of liquor is apt to de- 
range these people : in such subjects the blood 
would appear to be over accumulated in the 
head, or circulates unequally there, and thus 
causes delirium. Seamen, who are so much ex- 
posed to blows and wounds of the head, from 
the nature of their duty, are very liable to affec- 
tions of this kind. 

But independent of constitutional predispo- 
sition, or lesions of the brain, the habit of drunk- 
enness will bring on madness and ideotism. 
They sometimes follow a stroke of apoplexy. It 
is indeed certain, when this habit has been long 
indulged, that the structure of the brain becomes 
more or less injured. Morgagni, in his cele- 
brated work, De Causis et Sedibus morhoritm, has 
furnished us with many instances of the substance 
of the brain being much altered, as appeared by 
his dissections of drunkards. These instances 
exhibited the same changes from the healthy 
structure, which are to be found in the brains of 

* ParaphiMsyne Temultnta Sauv; Sp. 1. 
f Amentia a Tenuilentia Sauv. Sp 



130 
maniacs and ideots. In some it was found of a 
much firmer consistence than usual ; and in 
others more flaccid*: the cerebrum and cert hel- 
ium more softf : the cerebrum cerebellum, and 
nerves, were all extremly soft J ; the substance 
of the brain was yellow and soft, seemed cor- 
rupted § : a boney substance, and very hard 
gypseous concretions were found, in opposito 
nervorum thalamd\\: the trunks of the arteries in 
the meninges, and even their branches, which 
extend to the plexus choroides, much thicker, 
and harder than natural; and, when drieo, dis- 
covered a boney disposition in different 
places^". 



* Tarnen ea firmitudine cerebrum fuit, ut durius ad id tempus a 

me dissectum esse non meminissem. Lib. i. Epist. viii 6. 

Portio cerebelli fiaceida erat. &p. Lib, i. Epist. ii. 22. 

f Cerebrum et cerebellum moliora, Sec. Lib. i Epist. iii. 6 — 16. 

$ Cerebrum, cerebellum, et nervi, summa erant flacciditate, &c. 

Lib. i. Epist. v. 11. 

€ Substantia cerebri fiava ac fiaceida quae corrupta videbatur, &c. 

Lib. i. Epist. xi. 6. 

il Ossiculum, vel concretum g-ypseum durissimum, in opposite 
nervorum thalamo, &c. Epist. xi. 7> 

5[ Sed in tenui meningi arteriarum, trunci omnes, omnesque item 
earum rami, iique presertim, qui versus plexum choroidem con- 
ten dun 1 , multo erant crassiores aequo, et duriores, exsiccatique os- 
seam piuribus in locis naturam astenderunt Lib. ii. Epist. xxvii 28. 



131 
If the source of sense and motion is thus 
liable to be affected by spirituous potation, we 
need the less wonder at the loss of the mental 
faculties. How justly, then, may we exclaim, 
in the emphatic language o< Shakspeare, " Every 
inordinate cup is unblessed, and the ingredient is 
a devil /" 

Melancholy. 

V 

What I have before said on dyspepsia will su- 
persede many remarks that might have been 
made under this disease. The melancholy of 
drunkards, I fancy, is seldom cr never found 
without dyspeptic symptoms. Indeed dyspepsia; 
hypochondriasis, and melancholia; would only 
appear to be different degrees of the same com- 
plaint. Thus indigestion, proceeding from a 
debilitated condition of the chylopoetic viscera, 
without nervous affections, may be called simply 
Dyspepsia. But when apprehensions of danger, 
ill-grounded fears, and low spirits, accompany 
impaired digestion, the disease may then be 
named hypochondriasis. And when both these 
affections are present, while at the same time the 
mental disquietudes arise to derangement of in- 
tellect, or delirium, then only would I call the 



132 

disease Melancholy. The morning hours of a 
drunkard, when the bottle has been long with- 
held, often exhibit the last degree of dejected 
spirits, which are apt to bring on hallucination of 
d. The habit of ebriety feeds itself. In the 
absence of simulus, the ideas have all a gloomy 
cast, and every feeling is unpleasant : there is an 
aching void that nothing can fill up but a renewal 
of the cup ; which is • no sooner quaffed than 
another is disired : thus by degrees the brain is 
injured in its structure by violent actions and 
every species of delirium is the consequence. 

Impotency, and Abolition of the Sexual Appetite. 

There is scarcely an organ of the human body 
that does not, in its turn, receive some depravity 
from habitual temulency. Impotency may be 
occasioned here by a paralysis of those muscles 
which are employed in the sexual intercourse ; 
but the appetite itself is certainly destroy td in 
time : the sot loses all feelings of iove. The 
fair sex ought at all times to show their utter 
aversion to a drunkard, and to consider it an in- 
sult when he dares to approach them. This de- 
portment in the female part of society, would be 
the strongest preventive against the vice that 



133 
could be found ; for it annihilates all virtuous at- 
tachment among the sexes, and is the greatest foe 
to sentimental love. 

With equal justice, the habit of temulency 
has been said to debilitate the offspring, and pro- 
duce a puny race. It is a known law in the an- 
imal economy, that all secreted fluids partake of 
the vices of the secerning organ. A healthy ac- 
tion is required in every gland, that it may secrete 
healthy juices. We have seen that the mental 
functions become deranged, when the brain is 
injured in its structure. And if this fttppens, 
can it be too gross to suppose, that the organs of 
generation must equally suffer in both sexes, 
from frequent intoxication ; and if offspring 
should unfortunately be derived from such a pa- 
rentage, can we doubt > that it must be diseased 
and puny in its corporeal parts ; and beneath 
the standard of a rational being in its intellec- 
tual faculties ? — The best antidote against evils 
of this description in society is early marriage : 
which, by preserving the body healthful, and the 
mind pure, gives the best chance of transmitting 
these qualities to the progeny. — The sum total 
of all the diseases which flow from habitual 
drunkenness, is 

M 



134 



Premature Old Age. 

The wrinkled and dejected visage, the bloat- 
ed and sallow countenance, the dim eye, the 
quivering lip, the faultering tongue, sans teeth, 
the trembling hand, and tottering gait, are so 
many external signs of bodily infirmity : while 
weak judgment, timidity, irresolution, low spirits, 
trifling disposition, and puerile amusements, dis- 
cover a mind poisoned by the bowl of excess, 
not broken by the hand of time ! 



Diseases of Infants during Lactation* 

If diseases of so serious a nature appear in 
adults, from the inordinate use of vinous spirit, 
how much more liable must feeble infancy be 
to suffer from the same. J am afraid that this is 
no uncommon observation. It is well known 
that nurses, if they can deserve such a name, are 
in the practice of giving spirits in the form of 
punch to young children to make them sleep. 
The effect cannot fail to be hurtful : such chil- 
dren are known to be dull, drowsy, and stupid ; 



135 
floated in the* countenance, eyes inflamed, sub- 
ject to sickness at stomach, costive, and pot- 
bellied. The body is often covered with erup- 
tions, and slight scratches are disposed to ulce- 
rate. To these, bowel complaints may be 
added. 

Again, the food of women who suckle their 
own children is often very improperly selected. 
The quantity of the milk, not the quality of it, 
is studied. It is a well known fact that this se- 
cretion partakes very much of the nature of the 
diet that is used ; that is to say, certain articles 
pass through the breast unassimilated : vegeta- 
bles give a more ascescent milk than animal 
food ; but all drinks, containing ardent spirit^ 
such as wine, punch, caudle, ale, and porter, 
must impregnate the milk ; and thus, the di- 
gestive organs of the babe must be quickly in- 
jured. These must suffer in proportion to the 
delicacy of their texture ; and the diseases which 
flow from this source are certainly not uncom- 
mon. Physicians who have prescribed a diet 
and regimen for nursing mothers, have not suffi- 
ciently attended to the hurtful effects of wine and 
malt liquors. Porter is generally permitted in 
large quantities on these occasions ; a beverage, 
if there is any truth in our remarks, highly im- 



136 

proper and dangerous. It would be foreign 
from the nature of this work, to extend the sub- 
ject farther ; but it seemed necessary to intro- 
duce it, in a book that professedly treats of the 
effects of ardent spirits, on the living body. 



137 



CHAR V, 

The Method of correcting the Habit of in- 
toxication, and of treating the drunken Par- 
oxysm. 



We curse not wine : the Tile excess we blame. 

Armstrong, 

FROM what has been said in the preceeding 
pages, the importance of this part of my subject 
will be readily admitted, A train of complaints of 
the most dangerous nature, at once destroying 
the body, and depraving the mind, are the certain 
followers of habitual ebriety. Amidst ail the e- 
viis of human life, no cause of disease has so wide 
range, or so large a share, as the use of spirituous 
liquors. When we see dropsies, apoplexies^ 
palsies, Sec. multiplying in the bills of mortality, 
we must look to hard drinking as the principal 
agent in bringing on these maladies. More than 
one half of ail the sudden deaths which happen, 

M2 



138 
are in a fit of intoxication ; softened miu some 
milder name, not to ruffle the feelings of relations, 
in laying them before the public. 

This vice must have prevailed early among 
mankind ; and all good legislators have endea- 
voured to oppose its progress in society. Among 
the Athenians, by a law of Solon, the magistrate 
who became drunk was put to death ; inferior 
degrees of punishment fell upon other orders. 
Drunkenness was proscribed at JLasaemon by the 
laws of Lycurgus ; and, to excite horror among 
the children, against a vice so brutal and degrad- 
ing, the drunken slaves were exposed before 
them*. The ancient Saracens and Carthaginians 
drank no wine. The Nervii used no vinous li- 
quor, because it made them lazy and effemi- 
nate f . Among the Romans the vice was odious: 
the whole history of this republic does not men- 
tion such a phrase, as a habit of intoxication. 
The women were punished capitally if guilty of 
it : and the custom of saluting women is said to 
have been introduced, to discover whether they 
drank spirituous liquors. Ebriety is at all times 

« Plutarch. 

t Caesar 4e Bello Gallico. Lib. ii. car. viii, 



139 

degrading in men ; but in women it is disgust- 
ing and abominable. The Koran of Mahomet 
expressly denies wine to the Mussulman. The 
Cherokees, a tribe of Indians in North America, 
have forbid, under the most severe penalties, 
the use of spirituous liquors, among their coun- 
trymen, from having seen some of the neighbour- 
ing nations nearly extirpated by their use. — 
What can Christian Britain offer against these 
authorities ? 

Drunkenness prevails more in cold climates 
than in warm : physical causes may, in a great 
measure, explain this. Heat is one of the 
great supports of animal life : it bestows on 
the mental faculties cheerfulness and vivacity ; 
and the inhabitants of hot countries are observ- 
ed to be more gay and volatile than those of the 
northern regions. As heat supplies abundant 
stimulus, the constitution, therefore, needs less 
excitement from diet. But the shivering native 
of Lapland or Labrador, whose temperature of 
climate, for a great part of the year, descends 
beneath the freezing point, feels an unusual 
glow and animation from spirituous potation, 
which he cannot obtain from his wintry skies, 
His atmosphere thus conspires to make him a 
drunkard : because, when he first tastes a bever- 



140 
age that imparts cheerfulness and strength ; he 
is not aware that it is the first step to a course 
of indulgence, that must ultimately impair his 
health, and abridge his understanding*. Dr. 
Falconer, in his Essay on Climate, says, " If 
" we go from the Equator to the North Pole, 
" we shall find this vice increasing, together 
" with the degree of latitude. If we go from 
" the Equator again to the South Pole, we 
" shall find drunkenness travelling south, ex- 
M actly in the same proportion to the decrease of 
" heat." 

When ebriety is frequently repeated it be- 
comes hurtful in proportion to the heat of the 
atmosphere. The feverish heat which it creates, 
joined to that of a tropical climate, must the 
sooner bring on some fatal disease ; or more 
speedily exhaust the strength of the body by ex- 
cessive stimulation. This fact is daily exem- 
plified among European soldiers and seamen, as 
well as new-comers, in the West India islands, 
who, after getting drunk on cheap new rum, ex- 
pose themselves m the sun, or in the night sleep 
while the heavy dews are falling ; and thus be- 
come liable to those acute diseases that carry 

f Vide RajnaPs Hist, of America. 



141 

them off in a few days, in despite of all medicine. 
The French soldiers and seamen, by being more 
temperate in living than Englishmen, suffered 
less from the fevers of these regions, in former 
Avars. But this does not appear to be the case 
at present in San Domingo, where Frenchmen 
have died in greater proportion than even our 
troops, while we possessed that unwholesome 
island. It is well known that the modern 
armies of France are much addicted to drink- 
ing spirits ; and many of their greatest victo- 
ries are said to have been obtained under the 
fury inspired by dram-drinking ; the spirits 
being supplied to the soldiers while engaged, 
by women who attended them for that service, 
This is a species of prowess which our tars call 
Dutch courage ; and which, I hope, wiil never 
be resorted to by Britons in the present contest 
with France. 

This vile habit, it appears, was less known 
in Britain three hundred years ago than it is at 
this time. Mr. Cambden, in his Annals, under 
the year 1581, has made this remarkable obser-, 
vation : — " The English, who hitherto had, of 
% \ all the northern nations, shewn themselves 
" least addicted to immoderate drinking, and 
" been commended for their sobriety, first lean*. 



142 

* ed, in these wars in the Netherlands, to swal- 
" low large quantities of intoxicating liquors ; 
M and to destroy their own health by drinking 
u that of others." I am much afraid that some 
later wars in the same countries have not greatly 
encouraged sobriety*. The Roman armies were 
allowed only vinegar and water in all their expe- 
ditions ; yet with this simple beverage they con- 
quered the world ! 

It cannot be doubted that the convivial dis- 
position of the inhabitants of Great Britain 
and Ireland, has a strong tendency to extend 
the habit of ebriety. There is no business of mo- 
ment transacted in these islands without a libation 
toBacehus. Itprcvailsamongthe Peers of the realm 
and down to the parish committee* These convi- 
vial parties are a luxuriant scyon of a free country; 
where all ranks and degrees of society meet to en- 
joy friendly intercourse, without the dread of in- 
terruption from a jealous Inquisition, or the domi- 
ciliary visits of a tyrant's spies. But they have 
often the bad effect of mixing the profligate with 



* A certain general gave it out in public orders, that no officer 3 
who dined at his table, should exeeed two bottles of wine !!! — Let 
it be recorded to the honour of our triumphant navy, that our 
commanders in chief never allow more at their tables than half $ 
Bottle * 



143 

the good, and debauching the sober citizen : a 
certain number of bumper-toasts are to be gulped 
down on these occasions, without discriminating 
the weak head and sickly stomach from the con- 
stant wine-bibber. As the wine sparkles the 
spirits mount, and the heart dilates : man is an 
imitative animal, and quickly assimilates with his 
associates. The resolutions that were formed in 
the cool part of the morning, soon dissolve before 
the warming influence of a new toast and a fresh 
bowl. Thus clubs are formed ; one party begets 
another ; dinner succeeds to dinner ; till the 
man who startled once, at a half-pint, now stag- 
gers home under the load of one bottle more ! 
Evoe Bacche ! The man who was social at first 
In his cups, soon becomes convivial, and ends his 
career as a sot. 

It is no uncommon practice with certain weak- 
minded persons in this country, on particular oc- 
casions, to allow merry meetings to workmen ; 
when drunkenness, with all its evils, is a frequent 
consequence. These sorts of people have much 
pleasure in having their healths drank by great 
crowds, and delight in the revelry and noise 
which are occasioned. Surely a better plan 
would be, to give them a little food to carry home 
to their families. There is a dreadful account of 



144 
a meeting of this kind in Russia, which happened 
in 1779 " One of the farmers of the brandy 
" duty, who had made an immense fortune by 
" his contract, proposed to give a feast to the in- 
" habitants of the city, (Petersburg!!,) in testi- 
" mony of his gratitude to those who had enrich- 
" edhim. The victuals, the beer, and the bran- 
" dy, which he caused to be served, cost him 
" 20,000 rubles ! The populace flocked in 
" crowds to the place, adjoining to the summer 
u gardens, where he gdve this enormous repast ; 
" and in spite oi the precautions that had been 
" taken, disturbances soon arose, among this 
u motley throng of guests. The contentions 
" first began about the places, and the better 
" kind of provisions spread upon the board : 
" from struggles and noise they proceeded to 
" blows. Several persons were killed : others 
" became so intoxicated that they fell asleep in 
" the streets and perished from the severity of 
" the weather. The number of people, who 
" lost their lives, amounted in all, to at least 
" 500 !*" What a crime it was for this 
purse-proud wretch to bring a multitude to- 
gether to poison them ! Let those who are 

* Life of the Empress Catherine II* vol. ii. 



145 

fond of such treats to the people, think of this 
example. 

It has been asserted, that one of the best an- 
tidotes against intoxication is, for the sober man 
to witness the actions of the drunkard. With a 
mind as yet pure and unsullied with debauch, 
such a sight must be highly disgusting, and 
amidst the rigid manners of a Spartan education 
it might have great weight. But evil commu- 
nications corrupt good manners : vice by being 
often seen, loses its deformity ; and the best of 
young men have become sots from the contagion 
of example. A drunkard reeling to and fro in 
the streets, seldom escapes the insults and mock- 
ery of schoolboys. But the same boys, when 
grown up to men, do not always preserve the 
same hatred and contempt foF the practice. The 
babling sot may, for a time, be their sport and 
derisioa ; but a frequent view of the object wears 
off the sensibility of the eyes; and what they 
once beheld with dislike, becomes now their 
friend and associate. 

The custom of introducing a drunken man on 
the stage, is one of the meanest expedients of an 
author, to raise a laugh. Some of the wretched 
comedies of the present day, are particularly dis- 
gusting on this account. An audience should 

N 



146 

never be taught to countenance a vice that de- 
forms our nature, by applauding the jests and I 
wit of an inebriate. It serves to loosen the bonds 
of virtue, and familiarizes the young beholder to 
a practice that may terminate in his ruin. Procul 
esto, prof ani ! 

The allegory of the companions of Ulysses 
being transformed into swine, is a fine emblem of 
this degrading habit. The product of the vi- 
nous fermentation is not inaptly typified in the 
following lines of Ovid : 



-misceri tosti jubet hordea grani, 



Mellaque, yimque meri, cum lacte coagula passo, 
Quique sub hac lateant furtim dulcedine, succos 
Adjicit. 

A modern London porter-brewer, who mixes 
opium and coculus Indicus with his liquor, may 
be justly campared to the sorceress Circe, in 
thus compounding her charms and hog-trans- 
forming cup : 

Quae simul arenti sitientibus hausimus ore, 
(Et pudet et referam,) setis horrescere cccpi, 
Nee jam posse loqui ; pro verbis edere raucum 
Murmur; et in terram toto procumbere vultu : 
Osque meum sensi pando occalescere rostro ; 
Colla tumere toris, et qua modo pocula parte, 
■Sumpta mihi fuerant, ilia vestigia feci. 
Ciaudor hara. Ovid. Met. Lib. xiv. Fab, v. vi 



147 

Man, the lord of creation, when by excess and 
bebauch he has lost the faculty of reason, is not 
only levelled with the brutes, but seems to lose 
the respect of inferior animals. The generous 
horse, when mounted by a drunkard, forgets his 
wonted spirit and dignity of mien, as if ashamed 
of his burthen. The dog, at all other times 
faithful to man, feels his attachment insulted 
when he follows a staggering master. There 
must indeed be something striking in the man- 
ner and countenance, between sobriety and 
drunkenness ; and why should they not be per- 
ceived by these sagacious domestic animals? 
Facts are not wanting to prove this, which have 
come under my own knowledge. A man, re- 
turning home at night when beastly drunk, w T as 
attacked by his own house-dog, that had observ- 
ed such a change in his master's voice and ap- 
pearance, that he probably took him for a hog or 
a thief. The noise waked the household, who 
were too late to save the fleshy part of the leg 
from being miserably torn. — A gentleman, after 
getting very drunk in his own house with some 
jolly companions, went to take the air in his gar- 
den, where he was observed by some favourite 
pointers : but, instead of their usual caresses, 
they set upon him with great fury ; and, Acteon* 



14S 

like, he was hunted round his own walks by his 
own pack. The consequences might have been 
fatal, had not his screams brought his servants to 

his assistance. 

Hie fugit, per qu?c fuerat loea saepe secutus, * 
lieu famulos fugit ipse suos: ciamare libebat, 
Actseon ego sum, dominum cognoscitevestrum. 

Ovid. 

The reception which the King of Ithaca met 
with, after a long absence, from his dog Argo, 
was verv different from that of the two inebriates. 
Yet Ulysses was poor, and in rags, at his return : 
but his countenance was not altered by debauch, 
or his face and eyes flushed with wine. From his 
travels he had acquired much useful konwledge, 
mores rnultorum vidit et urbes : for these acquisi- 
tions the faithful dog seemed to feel a respect, 
and expired with joy at his feet. Had the King 
returned intoxicated with the cups of Circe 
that w r ere drank by his companions, it is proba- 
ble this friendly animal might have denied his 
lord and master. 

But if the habit of intoxication is obnoxious 
in all men; in the character of the Judge, the 
Counsellor, and the Physician, it is peculiarly 
criminal. The man that is daily muddled with 



149 

wine can possess no lucid interval, or power of 
discernment; he cannot discriminate between thf 
evidence of right and wrong ; and thus he is 
equally liable to condemn the innocent with the 
guilty. Solon, in framing the Athenian code, 
seems to have been aware of this ; and another 
wise man has said, " It is not for kings to drink 
" wine ; nor for princes strong drink : lest they 
" drink, and forget the law ; and pre vert the 
" judgment of any of the afflicted*." The 
same maxims apply to the duty of the lawyer ; if 
not, the peace of society can never be secure 
against evil advisers. But in the physician the 
habit is still more dangerous. Other counsellors 
of mankind have stated portions of their time for 
business, but the accessions of disease are uncer- 
tain, and the physician may be wanted at the 
moment when his reason is overwhelmed with 
wine. If there is one profession more than an- 
other, that requires acuteness of apprehension, 
serious reflection, or calm contemplation, it is 
that of the physician ; for every case introduces 
him to something he never saw before. Tiie 
world has, at all times, been little fit to judge of 
the medical character : because medical knowl- 

* Proverbs, chap, xxxi rer. 4, 5. 

N2 



150 

edge is almost insulated from the common obser- 
vation of mankind. But when you hear it asser- 
ted, that such a doctor can prescribe as well drunk 
as sober, you must pity the weak mind that 
eould form the idea ; or consider such language 
as blasphemy in the face of reason :— A drunken 
physician is not worthy to approach the sick bed 
of a Hottentot. I mean not to debar the profes- 
sion from the festive board; for, I think, of all men 
they stand most in need of relaxation, from the 
fatigues of business. Theirs is a continued 
round among scenes of pain, sorrow, and death : 
the man that employs a large part of the day in 
the gloom of a sick chamber is entitled to all the 
comforts that are derived from the society of the 
virtuous and good in the domestic circle ; and 
ought to have his share of amusements in the com- 
pany of the elegant and polite. 

The seeds of this disease, (the habit of ebrie- 
ty,) I suspect, like many other, are often sown in 
infancy. I do not merely allude to the moral 
education. In tRe present stage of society, hu- 
man kind are almost taken out of the hands of 
Nature : and a custom called fashion, a word 
which ought to have nothing to do with nursing, 
now rules every thing. The early stages of our 
existence require a mild bland nourishment, that* 



151 

is suited to the delicate excitability of a tender 
subject. But it too often happens that the infant 
is deprived of the breast, long before the growth 
of the body has fitted the stomach for the recep- 
tion of more stimulant food. Instead, therefore, 
of its mother's milk, the infant is fed on hot 
broth, spiced pudding, and, perhaps also, that 
enervating beverage tea. The taste is thus early 
vitiated, the stomach and bowels frequently dis- 
ordered ; and, to add to the mishief, the helpless 
child is forced to gulp down many a nauseous 
draught of medicine, or bitter potion, that 
its unnatural mother may acquit her con- 
science of having done every thing in her power 
to recover its health. Dyspeptic affections are 
in this manner quickly induced : a constant re- 
course to medicine, wine, cordials, and spirits, 
must be the consequence ; and the child of the 
fashionable lady becomes a certain annuity to 
physic ; a drunkard at twenty, and an old man 
at thirty years of age. Parents and guardians 
would do well to calculate the effects of an ap- 
petite, early accustomed to stimulating food ; 
and endeavour to prevent future bad habits, 
by suiting the nourishment to the period of 
life. 



152 

It may now be asked, at what age ought a 
child to begin the use of wine ? To this I must 
reply, that spirits, wine, and fermented liquors of 
all kinds ought to be excluded from the diet of 
infancy, childhood, and youth. Natural appe- 
tite requires no such stimulants. Human blood, 
and healthful chyle, do not acknowledge alkohol 
to be an ingredient in their composition. The 
use of these liquors is hurtful in proportion 
to the lender age in which it is begun. The 
laborious rustic, whose chief beverage is water, 
or milk, toils through the seasons, is never 
troubled with dyspeptic complaints ; and never 
suffers from low spirits or hypochondriacal ap- 
prehensions. Why, then, will the better orders 
of life, lay the foundation in infancy, for what are 
to be constant troubles to their children while 
they live ? 

When wine was first introduced into Great 
Britain, in the thirteenth century, it was con- 
fined to the shop of the apothecary : it would 
have been well had it been still confined there : 
but spirituous liquors are not mentioned at that 
period of our history. They were probably un- 
known till our army went to assist the Dutch in 
obtaining their independence. As an article of 
medicine the virtues of wine are sovereign m 



JLJO 

their kind ; there are some diseases for which it 
is the best remedy, witness typhus fever* But 
the mind that leans upon it for support under 
afflictions, trusts to a broken reed, a false friend, 
a deception that lulls it into fatal security. The 

ils and misfortunes of human life must be 
borne with fortitude of a different kind, and op- 
posed with religious and moral sentiments. 
These opiates of the soul do not terminate their 
operation by increasing the gloom, and inducing 
a severer paroxysm at its next recurrence. A 
man who gets drunk to forget care, should be 
reminded of the horror that will inevitably 
follow intoxication, on the first return of so- 
briety. 

I am of opinion, that no man in health can 
need wine till he arrives at forty. He may then 
begin with two glasses in the day : at fifty he 
may add two more ; and at sixty he may go the 
length of six glasses per diem, but not to exceed 
that quantity even though he should live to an 
hundred*. Lewis Cornaro, the Venetian noble- 
man who lived upwards of a hundred, used four- 
teen ounces of wine in the day. The stimulus 



* Let it be remembered that I only apply this quantity to the 
abstemious man who has never indulged in wine. 



154 

of wine is favourable to advanced age. The cir- 
culating system, after we pass the meridian of 
life, becomes less vigorous : and the passions 
that formerly added force and strength to the 
bodily movements, decline, and are less exciting. 
As the feelings and sensibility, therefore, grow 
blunt and dull, we can bear, not only with impu- 
nity, but with advantage, those excitors that 
would have done harm before. Wine, and all fer- 
mented liquors, by quickening the circulation of 
the blood, generate heat; and it is well known 
that increase of temperature is favourable to old 
age : heat stimulates the withered limb to motion, 
softens the rigid fibre, and opens the dry skin by 
augmenting the perspirable fluid. Thus aged 
people feel additional comfort in warm seasons 
and climates ; and generally die in some of the 
winter months. For these reasons, wine has 
been aptly called the " milk of old age" 

O ! seldom may the stated hours return 
Of drinking deep ! I would not daily taste, 
Except when life declines, even sober cups, 
Weak withering age no rigid law forbids, 
With frugal nectar, smooth and slow with balm, 
The sapless habit daily to bedew, 
And give the hesitating wheels of life 
Gliblier to play. But youth has better joys : 
And is it wise, when youth with pleasure flows, 
To squander the reliefs of age and pain ? 

Armstrong. Art of Preserving Health. 



In those families where gout and dyspetic 
complaints are hereditary, the use of wine, and 
all other fermented liquors, ought to be cautious- 
ly guarded against in childhood and youth. The 
parent who offers them to the infant, whatever 
may be the motives of tenderness, ought to weigh 
the consequences. If the babe were left to the 
instincts of nature these articles w r ould be the ve- 
ry last it would fix upon. Their qualities are so 
diametrically opposite to the mother's milk. 
The pleasure which they afford is momentary ; 
and every time they are resorted to, there is dan- 
ger of the quantity being increased : of the evils 
which result from this practice there is no end.The 
child that is born of gouty and dyspeptic parents 
ought from its birth to be confined to the mildest 
food ; it ought to subsist on milk alone as long 
as possible : it must never taste wine, even dilu- 
ted to the utmost, or beer of the weakest kind. 
Animal food, and broth made from that, light 
puddings, and different articles of cookery where 
milk forms the chief ingredient, will extend the 
diet as the child grows up ; and thus will be laid 
the foundation of a healthy constitution, and a 
temperate life. It is a contrary treatment that 
ensures the approach of these maladies ; and ear- 
ly gout is often fixed before the man arrives at 



156 
thirty. Such are the baneful effects of early bad 
customs ; for when the taste is once confirmed, 
whether for hot or cold articles ; substances 
sweet or sour, mild or acrid, they become so in- 
terwoven with habit, that we strive in vain to 
correct them. The late Dr. Cullen, in his Lec- 
tures, used to mention a family, all of whom 
were in the habit of taking a dram at a certain 
hour before dinner, about one o'clock. When 
the Doctor expressed his wonder at the practice, 
it was acknowledged by all, that if the time pas- 
sed, or if they were from home, and did not get 
the usual dram, it was attended with a considera- 
ble sense qfconciousness* In plain English, they 
had got into a very bad habit, and found them- 
selves low-spirited for want of their cordial. 
This morning dram was probably inculcated by 
the example of some dyspeptic mother, or an ar- 
thritic father. The venerable Professor did not 
inform us of the future history of this odd family; 
but I could almost venture to pledge myself, that 
the whole of them turned out to be drunkards. 
Indeed where the members of a family were so 
early initiated into pernicious customs by both 
precept and example, parents have no right to 
look for a regular lile among their children. In 
this habit, as in all others, imitation has its pow- 



157 

erful eftects ; and the man is spoiled in the arms 
of his nurse, while yet an infant. 

Some intemperate men, it may have been re- 
marked, have lived to a great age. That some 
drunkards have numbered eighty years and up- 
wards, there can be no doubt. But what kind of 
life has that been ? half the time must have been 
spent under the impression of deranged intellect; 
and their sober moments, if they had any, must 
have been a continued repetition of mental dis- 
quietudes, dejected spirits, and gloomy appre- 
hensions. If, however, we admit that one 
drunkard now and then may exceed three score 
years and ten, the balance is much on the other 
side, when many thousands fall victims to the 
bottle before they arrive at thirty. Let the man 
of reflection oniy look round him in society ; and 
as he sees his acquaintance fall off by the dis- 
eases, mentioned in our catalogue ; if he has 
been conversant with the modes of living among 
these persons, he will find that intemperance in 
drinking has had a large share in bringing them 
to the grave. 

But it is not drinking spirituous liquors to 
the length of intoxication only that constitutes 
intemperance. A man may drink a great deal, 
pass a large portion of his time at the bottle, and 

O 



158 

yet be able to fill most of the avocations of life. 
There are certainly many men of this descrip- 
tion, who have never been so transformed with 
liquor as to be unknown to their own house-dog, 
or so foolish in their appearance, as to be hooted 
by school-boys, that are yet to be considered as 
intemperate livers. These sober drunkards, if I 
may be allowed the expression, cfeceive them- 
selves as well as others ; and though they pace 
slowly along the road to ruin, their journey ter- 
minates at the same goal, bad health. They are 
commonly men of easy dispositions, and an in- 
dolent turn of mind ; like the man whom Horace 
describes, 



■ ■ ■ qui nee veteris pocula Massici, 
Nee partem solido demere de die 
Spernit. 



Of the quantity of liquor which some in- 
ebriates are capable of consuming, we have no 
accurate accounts. To a certain length, habit 
may enable a man to devour an enormous load : 
but we even see habitual drunkards in their de- 
cline, unequal to their former quantity. Their 
stomachs may still be able to retain it, but the 
head grows too weak to carry it. The organiza- 
tion of the brain has been injured. The blood- 



159 
vessels there become straitened in their capacity 
to receive blood ; some are obliterated ; while 
others are uncommonly dilated and distended : 
the substance of the brain also undergoes 
changes, becomes dry and harder ; or soft and 
more flaccid than natural. To these may be 
added, bony, or stony concretions in different 
places of that organ ; effusions under the cra- 
nium, and water in the ventricles. These lesions 
of the organic structure would seem to assist a 
smaller quantity of liquor in raising delirium, 
and for obvious reasons I have heard it assert- 
ed that some coal-heavers and porters in London., 
will consume four gallons of ale or porter in the 
twenty-four hours. This quantity could not be 
long continued. I knew a marine, in a king's 
ship, who usually drank four gallons of beer in 
the day ; but he soon grew bloated and stupid^ 
and died of apoplexy. Among the numerous 
deaths from intoxication which have come under 
my own observation, or reported to me by sur- 
geons, no seaman ever exceeded the bottle of 
spirit ; whether rum of the common strength, or 
malt spirit, made in England, the most fiery of 
the whole. An officer of the hospital ship of the 
fleet, besides his allowance of wine, at the mess- 
table, usually drank a bottle and a half of gin in 



160 

.rwenty-four hours. His face, at times, was 
equal to Bardolph's, with bloodshot eyes, fetid 
breath, &c. He died of apoplexy and diseased 
liver. A midshipman of my acquaintance, only 
sixteen years old, drank in the West Indies, 
three gallons of punch daily. The ship did not 
remain long in the country: but he became a 
professed drunkard, and died lately in the Medi- 
terranean. The following narrative may serve 
as an example of what is frequently done by a 
labouring man in an American town, who passes 
for a sober citizen. The daily quantity of spirits 
(bad rum) consumed by one of these persons, is 
as follows : 

Before breakfast 2 gills. 

Before dinner 3 

By the time the day's 
work is done 5 

Total 8 gills, or 1 quart \ 
resides what he drinks in porter houses, clubs, 
and other meetings in the evening. The re- 
porter admits that this practice proves fatal, but 
he does not say in what length of time, or what 
diseases are the sequel. If a sober American la- 
bourer can devour this quantity of spirit, what 
portion constitutes a drunkard in that country ? 



161 

It is well that America receives her population 
from the old continent, otherwise her peasantry 
must soon die out. This account is taken from 
the Medical Repository of New York : it fur- 
nishes a shocking specimen of the morals of the 
lower orders of society in the northern provinces 
of the new world. 

How far the rapturous effusions of poets, in the 
praise of wine, have tended to meliorate or de- 
prave the moral character, may not be the province 
of a physician to discuss. I am ignorant of what 
stupendous works o genius have been planned 
by fancy , u in a fine frenzy rolling^ ever the 
fumes of wine. I rather suspect that such build- 
ings may be compared to castles in the air, 
Thus a great name of the present day, whom 
this country looks up to, spoke of the deliverance 
of Europe from the horrors of the French Revo- 
lution with all the confidence of a prophet, who 
could look into the womb of time. He is styled 
by way of eminence, "a -three-bottle man. 5 ' But 
if it was under the influence of that quantity that 
he planned so many unsuccessful expeditions 
against the enemy, as a lover of my native land, I 
cannot help wishing that this great drinker hacj 
been confined to three bottles of water till he had 
fulfilled his promises to his countrymen. 

2 



162 

When Philip king of Macedon invited Die- 
nysius the younger, to dine with him at Corinth, 
he felt an inclination to deride the father of his 
royal guest, because he had blended the charac- 
ters of the Prince and Poet ; and had employed 
his leisure in writing tragedies. " How could 
" the king find leisure, 55 said Philip, to write 
" these trifles? 55 — " In those hours 55 answered 
Dionysius, " which yeu and I spend in' drunk- 
" enness and debauchery*. 55 This is an advice 
that I can safely recommend to princes, and all 
great men to whom the fate of empires may be 
consigned ; as it is a more amiable employment 
to be a poet than a drunkard ; and more honour- 
able to write tragadies then to act them on the 
theatre of human life, among surrounding nations, 
as was done by Philip and Alexander. 

Anacreon and Horace, who detail with so 
much pleasantry their convival hours, have shewn 
us but one side of the picture: the schirrous liver 
and the palsied limb, with all the nameless ills 
which the body suffers, before these mortal dis- 
tempers appear, are thrown into the back ground. 
Y- t the authority of some physicians may be 
quoted in support of the lively sallies of these 

* Zimmerman on Solitude. 



163 
poets. Dr. Haller, a man alike famous for his* 
piety and learning, says, " Ingenium quod exci- 
" tat vinum, ex eo clarissime inielligitur, quod ad 
" poesin, quae res ingenii est, mirifice disponat. 
11 Perpetuo ab antiquitate creditum est,et ipsa res 
cl docet, vini calorem, poetarum furorem, etim- 
" petum excitare : et Bacchi et Apollinis furo- 
" rem unum esseeundemque: quamobrem Ovi- 
* dius vino carens, in exilio de se conqueritur ; 

" Impetus ille sacer, qui vatum pectora nutrit, 
M Qui in nobis esse solebat, abest % 39 

Hoffman expresses himself much to the same 
purpose : " Tarn observamus omnes hos popu- 
" los qui vino utuntur, ionge ingeniosiores esse 
" reliquis hominibus. Nullibi enim artes libe- 
" rales, et disciplinarum studia melius floruerunt 
M ac florent f quam dictis in locis : vina enim 
u fovent vires, pituitam attenuant, mordaces 
" euras humanis mentibus infestas abstergunt, 
" vim animo reddunt, spirituascentiam sanguinis 
" promovent, ingeniumque accuunt : unde non 
u inepte vinum poetarum equus dictum estf." 

* Physiol, lib, xxii. sect. 1 — 13. 
f Hoffm. De Temperamento. 



164 

The language contained in these quotations, 
my opinion, is more becoming the poet than 
physician. Poetry, the first of the fine arts, took 
its rise among shepherds in the early ages of 
society, when the manners of mankind, as well 
as their diet, were simple ; when the fermenta- 
tion of the juice of the grape was unknown, and 
■when the vine itself, either sprung up spontane- 
ously, or was only cultivated as a fruit-tree. 
Sentiments of the kind, with these physicians, we 
imbibe with our classical education ; and we pre- 
serve them through life on account of the elegant 
taste and language in which they are written. 
But when we come to engraft them on the use- 
ful affairs of the w T orld, they elevate the mind 
above the realities around it. and give a dan- 
gerous bias to the moral character. Our 
Milton has a beautiful Latin ode in praise of 
wine. 

A modern British physician of great emi- 
nence, himself a poet, far above mediocrity, 
both in his medical and metrical works,-has held 
a language very -different from both Haller and 
Hoffman. He probably carries his antipathy to 
vinous potation too far ; and attributes effects to 
it that are generally overcharged, if not incor* 



165 
rect*. He was no wine-bibber, and died lately 
about the age of seventy. But I have been told 
by a lady of great literary and scientific accom- 
plishments, who had lived for weeks in the fami- 
ly, that he was rather a gross eater, and made 
amends for the want of vinous stimulus, by con- 
sinning large quantities of animal food. The 
muse of Darwin therefore received no inspira- 
tion from Bacchus, in singing the "tiny graces' 5 
of the plants, 

To woo and win their vegetable loves. Eot. Garde);. 

As far as my own experience goes in resort- 
ing to wine agathst the fatigues of business, I 
think, if circumstances were fairly weighed, they 
do not much support the practice. I have al- 
ways had more inclination than opportunities for 
study. In the practical duties of medicine I 
have, without prejudice, formed my observations 
at the sick-bed ; and no physician ever encoun- 
tered more anxiety for the fate of his prescrip- 
tion, or felt more sincerely for the recovery of 
his patient. My labours in some periods of the 
naval service, in point of mental and bodily ex- 
ertion, have not been surpassed by any member 

* £ocmoiaia. 



166 

of the profession ; nor has the least of these t>eeyt 
my endeavours to rouse the apathy and torpid in- 
difference to the subject of health in the navy, 
that pervades the public officers in this country. 
A great part of my life has been spent among 
men who are, from situation, said to be much 
addicted to ebriety : but in the present day, in 
this respect, naval officers, for sober living, are 
equal to any other description of persons. My 
whole experience assures me, that wine is no 
friend to vigour or activity of mind : it whirls 
the fancy beyond the judgment, and leaves body 
and sou! in a state of listless indolence and sloth. 
This is confirmed by what I have observed of 
the habits of life among some great men whom I 
liave had the honour to number as friends. The 
man that, on arduous occasions, is to trust to his 
own judgment must preserve an equilibrium of 
mind, alike proof against contingencies as internal 
passions. Even the physician requires this for- 
titude as much as any individual. He must be 
prompt in his decisions ; bold in enterprise.; 
fruitful in resources ; patient under expectation ; 
not elated with success, or depressed with disap- 
pointment. But if his spirits are of that stan- 
dard as to need a fillip from wine, he will never 
conceive or execute any thing magnanimous or 



167 
grand In a survey of my whole acquaintance 
and friends, I find that the water-drinkers possess 
the most equal temper and cheerful dispositions. 
But this does not exclude the temperate use of 
wine, which certainly is less in quantity than peo- 
ple commonly imagine*. 

With respect to labour of body the same argu- 
ments apply. Vinous liquors for a while encrease 
muscular strength ; but to a certainty bring on 
premature weariness and fatigue, with more in- 
clination to sleep. Spirits have the same effects 
in a greater degree, and cause a greater consump- 
tion of pure air. In a warm season or climate, 
the best articles to use under severe corporeal 
hardships are the acid fruits, such as the lemon and 
and orange, apple, &c. ; or in lieu of them, vin- 
egar and water, as practised by the Roman sol- 
diers. In winter, plain diet, with a due admix- 
ture of animal food, and moderate exercise, are 
the sure security of preserveing warmth of body* 
Spirituous liquors, though generally practised, 
give but a temporary glow, and in the end 
render the effects of cold more speedily hurt- 
ful. 

* Yet I know some men who are only temperate from the dread 
of exciting furious passions bv the use of wine; their deposition 5 
being naturally bad, they are afraid to drink, 



168 

A custom has long prevailed in this country 
of drinking wine while at dinner : this is down- 
right pampering, and vitiates taste and healthful 
appetite. But if there is a guest at table who 
loves his bottle, it affords him an opportunity of 
getting drunk before the cloth is taken off, to the 
great annoyance of the company. This custom 
ought to be proscribed : " Thracum est" 

A nobleman of my acquaintance, a flag-officer, 
a man of the most equal temper, who excelled in 
the mathematical sciences, was subject to heredi- 
tary gout ; which, by a temperate regimen, and 
the spare use of wine, he kept under till he was 
nearly sixty. After this he was seldom without 
an annual attack ; but which did not impair his 
general health, or deprive him of exercise. Du- 
ring a tremendous gale of wind in the month of 
February, while he suffered great anxiety for the 
safety of his fleet, he was much exposed to cold 
and was seized with a severe gouty paroxysm, 
which lasted many weeks, and left considerable 
lamenesss behind, as well as general .debility. 
From habitual costiveness he had taken Glauber's 
salts as a laxative for twenty years ; and his wine, 
a glass or two, always largely diluted. My opin- 
ion was, that a mere stimulating plan was neces- 
sary ; that the cold purgative should be changed; 



169 

and generous wine freely indulged. My advice was 
overruled by those who had long attended him, 
who said that it was impracticable to alter such 
long habits ; and he declined from that moment* 
In this case, wine, that was wisely withheld du- 
ring the vigour of youth, would now, in old age, 
and under increasing debility, have been a certain 
remedy. A life so valuable ought to have been 
spun to its last thread ! Frail indeed is that art 
whose professors are jealous to have their merits 
tried by the laws of common sense. 

There can be no doubt that many persons have 
to date their first propensity to drinking to the 
too frequent use of spirituous tinctures as medi- 
cines, rashly prescribed for hysterical and hypo- 
chondriacal complaints. There are patients who 
are continually craving after medical novelties, 
and are in the practice of taking every article that 
is warming and cordial. People accustomed to 
drink very strong tea, particularly those who in- 
dulge in the finest greens, run great hazard of 
falling into the same evil habit. Tea, in the 
present day, has a large share in the production 
of stomach complaints, and those affections 
usually called nervous. It powerfully stimulates 
the digestive organs for a while, and exhilarates 
the spirits ; but a proportional debility and de* 

P 



170 
jection of mind succeed, till, like the dram, it- 
must be made stronger and stronger, and is then 
Followed by a train of dyspeptic symptoms, such 
as gastrodynia, acidity, flatulence, hysterics, bar- 
renness, and all the evils which flow from a de- 
ranged nervous system. Souchong tea, used 
once-a-day, not made too strong, with a due ad- 
mixture of cream and sugar, is a harmless and 
agreeable beverage. But hyson, and all the 
greens, are powerful narcotics, that destroy the 
stomach ; and when a train of stomach com- 
plaints is once fixed, and continued, by the use of 
tea, there is no person proof against the tempora- 
ry ease which is obtained by spirituous potation, 
but whose permanent effects are disease, pain, 
derangement of intellect, a miserable existence, 
or premature death. There are certainly many 
well-meaning people who take frequent drams to 
relieve uneasiness of stomach, without at all sus- 
pecting that they are doing any thing wrong. 
When complaints arise from this habit, they very 
little consider their daily cordial as the cause of 
the mischief, and too often continue it till the 
breach in their health is irreparable. 

There is another custom not uncommon in 
some families, but particularly at feasts and en- 
tertainments, the ceremony of handing cordials 



171 
found in the time of dinner, which is against all 
rules of temperance. It is deceiving the un- 
wary : for I am sure there are many who drink 
of the liqueurs that would blush to taste brandy. 
Yet they arc nothing more than brandy disguis- 
ed. Many of these cordials arc impregnated 
with narcotic substances, which add to the 
noxious qualities of the spirit. We were told by 
Dr. Mortimer, in the Philosophical Transactions 
that a man and his wife died paralytic, who drank 
daily a dram or two of brandy in which laurel- 
berries were infused*. The liqueur called Noyau> 
which is imponed in greatest perfection from 
Martinique, is ntarly allied to this, having all the 
flavour of the laurel- bitter, and may be readily 
imitated by bitter almonds. As the habit of 
ebriety is so difficult to be overcome, from what- 
ever causes it began, so the best maxim is, " ob^ 
" stare principiis f." 



* Reid and Gray's Abridgement, vol. vi. p. 270- 

fThe kernels of the drupacious fruits hare a flavour c; 
resembling the laurel-bitter, which is obtained from the leaves 
of the cherry laurel ; Prkmts lauro-cevasus of Linnaeus. The 
flowers and leaves of this tree are sometimes employed to season 
dishes and sweetmeats. About the year 1^28, they were first dis- 
covered to be poisonous, as narrated by Dr. Madden of Dublin in 
Ac Philosophical Transactions, Experiments have since been made 



172 
However seducing the love of inordinate drink- 
ing may be, like other bad habits, mankind sel- 
dom get into it once. There is a gradation in the 
vice. When the drunkard feels himself falling 
as it were in the scale of being, he forsakes his 
former friends, seems to shun his honourable ac- 
quaintance, and slides by degrees into the com- 
pany of men whom he lately despised. Some 
struggles of sensibility, some compunctious visit- 
ing, cannot fail to attend such a transition. A 
few years ago I met an old and once valued friend 
m a public walk : being short-sighted I did 
not perceive him for some time, and he made no 
advances to speak to me. I observed him more 
slovenly in his dress than usual, and his face ra- 
ther bloated : I requested the favour of his com- 
pany to dinner, which he accepted in an embar- 
rassed manner, and came. But alas ! quantum 
mutatus ab Mo ! At dinner his conversation was 
all in broken sentences ; his fine literary taste 
was gone : and the feast of reason and the flow 
of soul had no share in our entertainment. He 



on the subject by different physicians and naturalists, particularly 
the Abbe Fontana. In the year 1780, Captain Donellan was tried and 
condemned for the murder of Sir Theodosius Boughton his broth- 
er-in-law, by putting laurel-water into vials that were supposed 
to contain medicine, whish were swallowed, and proved fatal, 



173 
drank incessantly of sherry, as if insensible vvhv 
he did it, and filled bumpers every time. I was 
called out of the room on duty, but before I re- 
turned he had finished another bottle of wine.— 
It is painful to add, in a few weeks he was con- 
fined in a mad house ! I could trace no cause for 
the pernicious habit in this accomplished young 
man but the effect of a proud spirit broken by 
disapointments in his profession. 

When ebriety has become so far habitual that 
some disease appears in consequence, the phy- 
sician is for the first time called in, and a task the 
most ungreatful devolves upon him. If friends 
and relations had taken the alarm before to save 
the constitution of the patient, it will at once be 
found that their attempts proved unsuccessful* 
Whatever this disease may be, whether stomach 
complaints, with low spirits, permature gout, 
epilepsys jaundice, or any other of the catalogue, 
it is in vain to prescribe for it till the evil genius 
of the habit has been subdued. On such an oc 
casion it is difficult to lay down rules. The 
physician must be guided by his own discretion: 
he must scrutinize the character of his patient, 
his pursuits, his modes of living, his very passions 
and private affairs. He must consult his own 
experience of human nature, and what he has 

P2 



174 

learned in the school of the world. The arreat 
point to be obtained is the confidence of the sick 
man; but this is not to be accomplished at a first 
visit, It is to be remembered that a bodily in- 
firmity is not the only thing to be corrected. 
^ The habit of drunkennese it4a disease of the mind. 
The soul itself has received impressions that are 
incompatible with its reasoning powers. The 
subject, in all respects, requires great address ; 
and you must beware how you inveigh against 
the propensity ; for the cravings of appetite for the 
poisonous draught are to the intemperate drink- 
er as much the inclinations. of nature, for the time, 
as a draught of cold water to a traveller panting 
with thirst in a desart. Much vigilence will of- 
ten be required in watching these cravings; for 
they are sometimes attended with modes of decep- 
tion, and a degree of cunning, not to be equalled. 
I have known them employ force in the rudest 
manner in order to gratify their longing after 
spirituous liquors. I firmly believe that the in- 
judicious and ill-timed chastisement of officious 
friends have driven many unfortunate inebriate 
to ruin, that might have been reclaimed by a dif- 
ferent treatment. Nay, if such corrections are 
applied when the mind is ruffled with nervous 
and hypochondrical feelings, and depressed with 



175 
low spirits, which so frequently follow a i 
night's debauch, the consequences may be fatal ; 
and it is well known that suicide has sometimes 
been first resolved upon after these ghostly ad- 
monitions, 

When the physician has once gained the full 
confidence of his patient, he will find little diffi- 
culty in begining his plan of cure. I have on 
several occasions wrought myself so much into 
the good graces of them, that nothing gave them- 
so much alarm or uneasiness as the dread of de- 
clining my visits after they had been argued out 
of the pernicious practice. This confidence may 
sometimes be employed to great advantage when 
your regimen is in danger of being transgressed, 
for frequent relapses, and promises repeatedly bro- 
ken, will, in such situations, render the physi- 
cian's visits a work of great trial to his patience. 
This disease, I mean the habit of drunkenness, is 
like some other mental derangements ; there is an 
ascendancy to be gained over the person com- 
mitted to our care, which, when accomplished, 
brings him entirely under our control. Particu- 
lar opportunities are therefore to be taken, to 
hold up a miror as it were, that he may see the 
deformity of his conduct, and represent the in- 
surable maladies which flow from perseverance 



176 

in a course of intemperance. There are times 
when a picture of this kind will make a strong- 
impression on the mind ; but at the conclusion 
of every visit, something consolatory must be 
left for amusement, and as food for his reflec- 
tions. 

It has been a doubt with some physicians, 
whether even, if the patient were willing, it is 
proper all at once to leave off wine or spirits* 
The body being long accustomed to this stimu- 
lus cannot be deprived of it, without sustaining 
manifest injury. This mode of reasoning is 
founded on the observation that habit has a pow- 
erful influence over many of the actions of the an- 
imal economy ; it becomes a part of our nature, 
and some important operations of living system 
are entirely governed by it. The general fact 
being admitted, it does not follow that such long 
continued stimili as have a tendency to destroy 
the functions of the body, should not, all at once y 
be laid aside. Let us suppose a person for years 
living in a dungeon, unwholesome and unventi- 
latcd, till diseases appear from these causes, would 
any rational being hesitate a moment to bring 
forth the squalid sufferer into the light of day, 
that he might have the full benefit of pure atmos- 
phere ? The case is exactly in point ; the confined 



177 

person has been breathing poison, and the drum' 
ard has been swallowing it ; he has drank poison- 
ous spirit till it has Drought him ;o the verge of 
the grave, and yet it is held dangerous to take it 
away. The practice of physic is sometimes so 
tightly iaced in its technical habiliments that it is 
incapable of turning round ! But it does not ap- 
pear that ever the living body could accustom 
itself, strictly speaking, to the use of alkohol. 
The habit of intoxication belongs to the mind. 
The nature of the human stomach cannot accom- 
modate itself to ardent spirit, and dyspeptic symp- 
toms are the early signs of its being hurtful. 
The nervous, villous, and muscular coats, the 
gastric and mucous foliicles of the stomach, in- 
stead of feeling it necessary for their functions, 
by every repetition of the draught, resist it the 
more till at last digestion is overcome, a fixed 
disease takes place in these organs, and the fibres 
become hard and insensible. It is true, that du- 
ring all these corporeal ailments the mind is grad- 
ually forming a bad habit ; it receives pleasure 
from the first, but the body nothing but disease 
and pain. We daily see in all parts of the 
world, men, who by profligacy and hard drink- 
ing, have brought themselves to a jail ; yet if we 
consult the register of the prison, it does not ap- 



v 178 

pear that any of these habitual drunkards die by 
being forced to lead sober lives. If at any time 
an inebriate dies after he has been compelled to 
temperance, his death is not to be attributed to 
the want of spirituous potation, but to the too 
long continuance of it, which rendered his disease 
incurable. The whole of these arguments tend 
to prove that vinous stimulus may be safely re- 
linquished at once; the debility of the body, if 
any exists, is then to be cured by whatever may 
restore the weakened organs. In most cases na- 
ture will effect this, as these organs have only 
been exhausted by unnatural means. 

But, in attempting to subtract the vinous pota- 
tion by little and little, a difficnlty arises which 
^every one conversant with the subject must have 
observed. As soon as the limited portion of li- 
quor is swallowed, an agreeable glow is experi- 
enced ; and by it so grateful a feeling is conveyed 
to the mind, which in an instant connects the 
chain of habit, that is our duty to break. This 
glow and feeling are associated in the patient's 
mind with all those pleasurable sensations he has 
been accustomed to receive from his former bum- 
per. He therefore reasons with himself that he 
finds much relief ; and as he is aware that the ef- 
fect of the present dose will only be of short du. 



179 
nation, he must take another to prolong his reverie, 
and ward off some intruding care. With a 
second glass he finds more pleasing objects pre- 
sented to his imagination, and then he is urged to 
try a third. His depressed spirits, fears, and ap- 
prehensions have now vanished : he is so happy 
within himself that he despises fortune, and views 
the world with contempt ; thus he goes on, liba- 
tion after libation, till he sinks into a drunken 
slumber. 

The happiest he of all that e'er were mad, 
Or are or shall lie, could this folly last. 

The morning visit of his physician will be in 
troduced with the inquiry about the quantity 
of wine drank yesterday, and how he slept in the 
night ? He will probably tell his physician frank- 
ly that he rather exceeded his allowance, but slept 
well. But the morning account ; ate no break- 
fast, pain about the region of the liver worse, great 
flatulence, cardialgia, thirst, headach, &c. Such 
is the tenor of these consultations, repeated day 
after day ; the patient must be treated secundum 
artem, and nature is drove out of the house. Dr. 
Lettsom, in his little work on Drunkenness, tells 
us of a man that dropped a bit of sealing wax 
into his dram-glass every time he drank, till he 



180 
-filled it, and by this means gradually got the 
better of his habit. Whatever truth may be in 
this narrative, surely neither Br, Lettsom or any 
other physician could be childish enough, to 
imitate it ; for there could be no danger in filling 
the glass at once, if the cure of the patient de- 
pended on that. 

Again, are not habits of drunkenness more 
often produced by mental affections than corpo- 
real diseases ? I apprehend few people will doubt 
the truth of this. Does not the inebriate return 
to his potation rather to raise his spirits, and ex- 
hilarate the mind, than to support and strengthen 
the body ? The diseases of body, if unattended 
with dejection^ have no need of vinous stimulus; 
and three-fourths of the human race recover dai- 
ly from all the stages of debility without ever hav- 
ing recourse to it. With drunkards therefore my 
opinion is, and confirmed by much experience, 
that wine, malt liquor , and spirits, in every form, 
ought at once to be taken from them. 

As far as my experience of mankind enables 
me to decide, I must give it as my opinion, that 
there is no safety in trusting the habitual in- 
ebriate with any limited portion of liquor. 
Wherever I have known the drunkard effectually 
reformed, he has at once abandoned his potation 



181 

That dangerous degree of debility winch ha^ 
been said to follow the subtraction of vinous 
stimulus, I have never met with, however uni- 
versal the cry has been in its favour ; it is the 
war-whoop of alarmists ; the idle cant of arch 
theorists. 

I have mentioned, above, the necessity of i 
studying the patient's temper and character, that 
we may acquire his confidence. These will lead us 
to the particular cause, time and place of his love 
of the bottle. The danger of continuing his ca- 
reer may be then calmly argued with him, and 
something proposed that will effectually wean his 
affections from it, and strenuously engage his at- 
tention. This may be varied according to cir- 
cumstances, and must be left to the discretion of 
the physician. " Mutatio loci, si ex doloribus 
11 cordis, vel adversis fortunae aut amoris malum 
44 increvit, plurimum proderit. Hunc castra et 
ci arma ; hunc musae omnes \ hunc artes ele- 
"gantes; hunc rus amssnum ; ilium venatio et 
" variae excrcitationes suaviter occupabunt ; 
u hunc negotia magis seria non male detinebunt. 
" Et breviter cupiditas vini iisdem modis vin- 
" cenda, distantia et absentia, quibus amator im- 
u mitem dominam e pectore suo pellit*." 

♦ Dissertatio de Ebrietate, &c. p. 38. Edin. 17&8. 

Q 



— 



182 

In order to strengthen the body if debilitated, 
general remedies, as commonly employed, may 
be resorted to ; such as the cold bath, chalybeate 
waters, exercise in the open air, condiments, 
vigorous diet, &c. 

The waters of Bath are in considerable repute 
for their efficacy in recruiting the worn-down 
constitution of inebriates. But this means of 
relief can only be obtained by the wealthy : the 
greater part of our patients must be content with 
cheaper remedies at home. To those who can 
afford a journey to Bath, for the purpose of using 
its waters, I can have no objection to the trial. 
These waters are now found, by the superior 
chemical analysis of Dr. Gibbes, to contain iron 
in a very diffused state ; from which it ; s fair to 
suppose their medical qualities chiefly arise. 
This city also affords many elegant amusements, 
that may be consoling to a man who has just for- 
saken an unkind attachment. That species of 
etiquette which one is forced to go through in 
fashionable circles, and among trifling entertain- 
ments, may, on particular people, have a power- 
ful influence in introducing new trains of think- 
ing. The hours are there well adapted to the 
comfort of invalids, I would recommend people 
who visit this gay watering-place to keep a diary 



183 

the pleasures and acquaintance, such as, the 
number of fine women ; a list of widows and 
amount of their jointures ; a catalogue of the 
fortune-hunters ; what ladies are most amiable 
for accomplishments; which dances best, and 
which is given to scandal, &c. They will find 
there a great variety of medical characters, pro- 
bably the whole that are mentioned in the 
latro/ogia of Dr. Beddoes. But it is to be re- 
membered that all this regimen will be in vain 
without a firm resolution to persevere in the 
chastest temperance. It is surprising what na- 
ture will effect in the cure of those violent dys- 
peptic and hepatic affections which have been in- 
duced by intoxication^ when the inordinate use of 
wine has ceased. Nay, those diseases, when 
pronounced inclinable, have sometimes yielded 
in a few months to a plain diet and water beve- 
rage : Nothing, therefore, can be more en- 
couraging to persons who resolve firmly to lead a 
regular and sober life. 

The chief complaints which require medicine 
are of the dyspeptic kind. The pain and tin- 
easiness which they create is almost constant ; and 
if accompanied with a hypochondriacal disposi- 
tion, nothing can be more harassing. It is al- 
ways necessary in such cases to correct the acid 



184 

prevailing in the stomach and bowels; whk- 
may be done by Pulv. chel. comp. Pulv. cretae 
comp. Mag. ust. Aq. calcis, &c. Acidity with 
flatulence often produces spasmodic pains and 
twitches, as they are called, as well as that irre- 
gular and tumultuous motion of the intestines 
called borborrygmi. Bitters are readily com- 
bined with these anti-acids, such as Colombo, 
quassia,, characemelum, &x. ; they likewise im- 
pede fermentation in the stomach, and also cor- 
rect acidity. Iron, in its most suitable state, (for 
the form ought to be studied) given in small 
quantity, and continued long, is justly celebrated 
in these cases. I would have the belly preserv- 
ed in a soluble condition by gentle laxatives; but 
lt , . __ " * *■ * •* 

an me narsher purgatives must De avoided : it 
the diet can be so conducted as to supersede the 
use of medicine in regulating this discharge, so 
much the better. The cramps and spasms which 
so often attend the weakened stomach are readily 
relieved by aether, vitr. and opium, with other 
stimulants ; but these generally yield when the 
acidity is overcome. The physician, in direct- 
ing his formula^ will cautiously avoid every pre- 
paration that has ardent spirit in its composition. 
I have seen and known many instances where the 
most nauseous and fetid tinctures were deyoureri 



1*85 
with an avidity not to be conceived, when it was 
found that they were compounded of brandy. 
The taste of the mouth on such occasions has 
little to do in exciting the desirestof the patient ; 
there is a vacuum in sensation, if I may so term 
it, that can be supplied with nothing but the vi- 
nous stimulus while the habit remains, and the 
mind not earnestly in pursuit of something that 
can engage it. 

The dyspnoea, or shortness of breath of drunk- 
ards, is of two kinds. The one is sympathetic 
with affections of the stomach, liver, heart, &c. ; 
the other usually preceeds and attends hydrothor- 
ax, and a general disposition to dropsy. It is 
a most distressing symptom, as the, maladies 
which it accompanies are seldom curable ; opiates 
and aether, vit. give temporary ease. Some yeans 
ago I attended an old gentleman of seventy-two, 
who laboured under a severe dyspnoea and gen- 
eral dropsy. They were induced by tippling gin 
and water, a phrase very well applied to that fre- 
quent recourse to spirit and water which some 
people practice without getting drunk. This 
gentleman had a remarkable recovery, from the 
exhibition of squills, prepared as directed in the 
3d vol. of Medicina Nautica, article Phthisis* 

the space of a year he had a relapse, and was 
Q2 



186 
cured in the same manner, but he never gavt 
up his grog. He lived to eighty-four. 

In those visceral obstructions, such as the tub- 
ercular or schirrous liver, I am averse to all se- 
vere mercurial courses. Indeed mercury in any 
form has seldom appeared to me to be of any 
service beyond its action in keeping the bowels 
open, where costiveness was to be guarded against 
I conceive the frame of an habitual drunkard to 
have been so much exhausted by inordinate and 
unnatural stimuli^ that it lias long been my prac- 
tice to commit him to the regimen of children, 
such as diet of milk, and other kinds of nourish- 
ment of the mildest quality. In short, instead 
of withdrawing the bottle by those slow degrees 
which have been long recommended by physi- 
cians, my plan of cure is at once to take from him 
every thing that is highly stimulating ; to put him 
on food in direct opposition to his former modes 
of living, and consign him to the lap of nature as 
if his existence were to pass through a second 
infancy. Indeed the reformed drunkard must 
be considered as a regenerated being. 

I have attended two cases of diseased liver 
within these few months from- frequent spirituous 
potation, although neither of them were deemed 
intemperate drinkers. They both proved fatal r 



187 
and were in the last stage of debility before I Wu. 
consulted. One of them more liable to dyspep- 
sia, laboured under jaundice, and the hue of the 
skin before death, as well as the urine, was nearly 
black. The other suffered from hydrothorax, 
though both Irad dropsy*. Inebriates who have 
been corpulent, I think are more than others, li- 
able to hydrops pectoris. Obesity by distending 
the cellular substance, and when the adipose cells 
come to be empty afterwards, may pave the way 
to a greater exhalation ; and deminished absorp- 
tion at the same time, may take place from the 
pressure being removed. 

In the cases just mentioned, the disease of the 
liver had been very slow in its progress, and 
without giving much pain. Indeed this viscus> 
notwithstanding its important office in digestion 
and sanguification, appears to be endued with 
little sensibility. When calculi are lodged in 
the ducts, acute pain is sometimes felt, but all 
its other diseases create little uneasiness. In 
icterus when the bile is carried in considerable 
quantity into the circulation, there is an unusual 
torpor of feeling and sluggishness of motion 

* I am sorry to observe that numerous cases of the same kind 
£ave since that time come under my notice, 



166 
throughout the body. Can the bile affect the 
oxygenation of the blood when absorbed in thi& 
manner ? Might not this diminished sensibility 
be owing to the abstraction of oxygene ? Are he- 
patic obstructions induced by vinous potation, 
similar in appearance to those produced by he- 
patitis in tropical climates ? Mercury so success- 
fully exhibited by Bontius, and others since his 
time, in the disease of the East Indies, has not, 
to my knowledge, ever relieved the tubercular 
^Section from hard drinking. 

The constipation of bowels which follows in- 
toxication, for a single paroxysm may be owing' 
:o increased absorption from vinous stimulus ; 
>;nd diarrhoea may be caused by the inverted 
.notion of the iacteals, by the increased action of 
exJhalants and mucous glands, and also by the 
increased peristaltic motion of the intestines that 
hurries on their contents. The constipation 
which attends habitual ebriety may arise from a 
weaker peristaltic motion, or deficiency of bile^ 
the diarrhoea from diminishing absorption, by 
the Iacteals becoming torpid ; the cure therefore 
<:an only be effected by removing the primary 
cause of the mischief. 

Having always directed my curative indica- 
tions of habitual tenxulency chiefly to the stat' 



189 

patient's mind, much may be frequently done 
by rousing particular passions, such as a parent's 
love for his children, the jealousy attached to 
character, the desire of fame, the pride of repu- 
tation, family pride, &c. I have seen a lovely in- 
ftmt force tears from a drunken father, when 
nothing else could affect him, though he was 
afterwards reclaimed. The good sense and 
management of an amiable wife, we know, will 
often accomplish wonders. The practice I would 
wish to inculcate, in taking advantage of the pa- 
tient's temper and feelings, is nicely illustrated 
by the following fact : A friend of mine an emi- 
nent physician, in the north, was consulted by a 
gentleman on the subject of correcting an un- 

1 " -~~* *^ *V bottle, in the wife of 
fortunate atuuuimviiv %*> v -, — 

his bosom. They formally sat down to de- 
liberate, and the doctor listened with much pa- 
tience to all the ways and means that bad been 
devised by the distressed and affectionate hus- 
band to reclaim his cava sposa. So much had 
been done, and so many expedients tried in vain, 
that the physician declared, nothing further could 
be attempted, but to place a hogshead oi brandy 
before her, and let her drink till she gave up the 
ghost ! The last part of the sentence was pro- 
nounced with considerable emphasis. It so hap- 



199 
pened that the lady suspecting the subject oi 
consultation to be herseit, was concealed in an 
adjoining room, and overheard every word. The 
words of the physician strongly affected her; her 
pride was wounded, and her resentment roused 
to the highest pitch imaginable. In the whirl- 
wind of passion the chain of habit was broke in 
an instant ; female delicacy resumed its ascen- 
dency over her actions ; and from that moment 
she abjured the intoxicating charm. I am sorry 
to add my honest friend was never after be- 
held with complaisance by the fair convert, 
though he had proved to be her best bene- 
factor. 

In May last I was requested to visit a respecta- 
ble tradesman, whom I f<-;^ ^uu?ing under 
severe dyspeptic complaints, depression of spirits, 
great apprehension, and, at times, alienation of 
mind. For my two or three first visits I was un- 
able to divine the cause of such extraordinary 
symptoms. But in the course of attendance it 
at last came out that he had lately been much 
addicted to the bottle. I could now take my 
ground to advantage ; and in a long conversation 
with him, he told me that something lay heavy 
on his mind. He then related what it was : he 
Ivad some months before been in a company 



191 
where one of his particular friends, in an unbe- 
coming manner, traduced the character of ano- 
ther, and which strongly affected him. This 
circumstance preyed upon his memory ; he 
could neither sleep or rest for it ; and he had 
recourse to drinking to quiet the tumult of his 
spirits, and agitation of mind. Being now in- 
formed of all the particulars of this curious hal- 
lucination, with much difficulty I at last per- 
suaded him to relinquish his liquor. He kept 
his resolution for some days 9 when he relapsed, 
drank a considerable quantity, and next morn- 
ing early all his horrors returned. About nine 
o'clock I found him quite frantic ; and he even 
spoke of destroying himself. He had now all 
the symptoms of phrenitic delirium, or brain 
fever. Being a strong hale man I ordered venae- 
section ; and blood to the amount of twenty-four 
ounces was taken from him. He became quiet 
immediately ; slept sound the succeeding night, 
and only complained of weakness in the morn- 
ing. I now reasoned with him at my visits in- 
stead of plying him with medicine : he listened 
to my admonitions with great attention ; thanked 
me, even to tears, for the signal change which 
my arguments had made upon him, and happily 
regained his usual serenity of mind. — I was 



192 

much pleased with the successful issue of fliis 
case ; for at. first none ever appeared more likely 
to terminate in permanent madness. 

Having now finished my method of treating 
and correcting the habit of intoxication, as fa& as 
my own experience has warranted me, I shall 
deliver my sentiments on what appears to me 
the bast method of treating the drunken Par- 

As the Meteria Medica does not supply any 
thing as yet known for correcting the inebriating 
power of alkohol, the cure of the paroxysm will 
turn very much in evacuating it from the stomach; 
which must be best done by throwing in quanti- 
ties of lukewarm water, and provoking vomiting. 
Acids, it is true, have been said to prove very 
efficacious in destroying the stimulant power of 
ardent spirit by chemical union, thereby altering 
its nature. It has been a common practice to 
exhibit acids to obviate the effect of large doses 
of opium : but it is doubtful whether ever much 
good was done by their assistance. If this is at 
all a chemical question, it will not be easy to ex- 
plain the mode of action of these substances with 
opium* I would therefore, at all times, prefer 
the method of dilution, and provoking vomiting, 
if possible. It is remarked in a former part of 



193 
this essay that death is sometimes so sudden 
after the deglutition of a large quantity of raw oi 
undiluted spirit, that no time is given to call-in 
medical assistance. Nevertheless this practice is 
so simple as to be easily carried into effect by any 
person present : but I am ignorant whether any 
rules on the subject have been published by the 
Humane Society. 

Should the drunken man have so far lost the 
power of sense and motion as to be unable to 
help himself, he ought to be placed either in an 
armed chair, where he cannot fall, or laid in a 
bed with the head erect, inclining a little to the 
one side, for the purpose of facilitating vomit- 
ing. The neckcloth ought to be taken off, and 
the collar of the shirt unbuttoned. The doors 
and windows of the room ought to be thrown 
open, for a free ventilation ; all visitors beyond 
assistants must be excluded, and whatever may 
add to the heat of the body is to be carefully 
avoided. 

If his face is much swoln, and unusually 
flushed or bloated; if his breathing is sterte- 
rous, with the eyes fixed and vessels turgid, there 
is danger of an instant fit of apoplexy. How far 
bleeding with the lancet, cupping the temples, or 
applying leeches, for the purpose of relieving the 

R 



194 
brain, are to be depended upon, I cannot well 
determine. I have tried bleeding, and the pa- 
tient has recovered that fit ; but in a few hours 
another one has carried him off. If, however, 
these means should be attempted, attention must 
be paid to the strength and age of the patient, 
and to the degree of comatose symptoms, so as 
to regulate the quantity of blood necessary to be 
taken away. Which being done the stomach is 
to be quickly unloaded ; and as the delay in ex- 
hibiting emetics might be fatal, the best means of 
accomplishing this is by introducing a feather or 
any suitable substance into the mouth, and tick- 
ling the faucers, till the contents of that viscus 
are all evacuated*. 

I am well aware that there are physicians who 
may hesitate to direct vomiting in, the manner 
which I have proposed. Vomiting, under an 
impending apoplexy, has been considered a dan- 
gerous practice ; as during the inverted action of 
the stomach, and the collapsed state of the lungs, 



* Si ebrius quispiam repente aphonias fiat, eonvulsus moritur, 
nisi febre corripiatur, aut ubi, ad horara pervenerit, qua crapulge 
solvuntur vocem recuperit. Hip. Aphor. v. sect. 5. 

Qui ebrius obmutuit, is fere nervorum distentione consumitur, 
nisi aut febris accessit, aut eo tempore, quo ebrietas solvi debet, 
loqui ccepit. Oel. De Med. 1. iL c. 6. 



195 

by a long inspiration, the blood is accumulated in 
the blood-vessels of the brain, and thus a greater 
hazard of their distention, rupture and effusion 
from them take place. That such things might 
happen during the effort of vomiting I do not 
mean to dispute : but I have long made the ob- 
servation that spontaneous vomiting is a certain 
relief here, when there is every sign of instant 
apoplexy. I therefore conceive it fair to imitnte 
that effort by art. Indeed those gentlemen who 
have cavilled most at this practice have produced 
no fact to controvert it : their dislike to it rests 
solely on theoretical opinions. To these opinions, 
fortunately, the operations of nature are not 
obliged to bend : for if we are to suppose it 
dangerous to evacuate the loaded stomach of the 
inebriate, vomiting, at any time, must be con- 
sidered as an operation not only inexpedient but 
to a certainty hurtful. 

The means of exciting vomiting, I have said 
above, are so simple, that any person might ac- 
complish it, as in the following instance. A gen- 
tleman returning home on a dark night stumbled 
over something soft in the street, which induced 
him to examine what it was, when it proved to 
be a man most insensibly drunk. Not wishing 
to leave him to the hazard of being trod upon by 



a horse qv carriage, he waited for the next pas- 
senger, who kindly took him on his back. They 
earned hirn to the first light which they saw, 
which proved to be his own house, and where 
his mother was anxiously waiting his return from 
a corporation feast. The man was to all appear- 
ance dying: but one of the gentleman having 
perused my thesis, thought, if any thing could 
save him, it was by unloading the stomach, which 
was effected by forcing down warm water. This 
timely expedient brought him quickly to his 
senses and he was snatched from the jaws of death. 
I firmly believe that many human beings might 
be saved were equal humanity exercised for the 
recovery of drunkards in similar conditions. 

I would also recommend the bowels to be im- 
mediately emptied by Clysters. Common salt, 
to the amount of two table-spoonfuls dissolved 
in a pint of water, blood-warm, can be easily 
procured, and will act quickly. 

Throughout the whole paroxysm the applica- 
tion of cold water, rectified spirit of wine, or 
aether, to the head and temples, is proper. Al- 
though it may be difficult to explain the modus 
operandi of these articles, I am well convinced of 
their utility : but the cold produced by their eva- 
poration from the head may in a great measure 



197 

account for their good effects. The affusion of 
cold water, or the shower-bath, when it can be 
procured, might be still more beneficial. 

u Senatorcm Britannicum celeberrimum, (non 
u magis spectabilem elegantia orationis, quam 
u frequentia ebrietatis,) fertur, gravem vino, 
u mantile aqua frigida bene madefactum circum 
" caput constringere, in lectulum se recipere ; et 
" mane expergefactum ad curiam pergere, mira- 
* c bile dictu ! sine capitis do! ore, vel Ian gu ore* 
u vel lassitudine aut animi aut corporis, ad di- 
u cendum semper paratum*." 

Analogous to the use of the wet kerchief 
bound about the head, is the clay cap., sometimes 
tried in maniacal cases. Whatever moderates 
the heat and velocity of the circulation of the 
brain, would seem to be beneficial in both dis- 
eases. 

Sudden immersion of the body in cold water 
has often brought a drunkard to his senses. I 
have frequently known this happen in h<s Ma- 
jesty's ships, where seamen, in a state of stupid 
intoxication, have fallen overboard ; they are 
generally sober when picked up. The case of 
the miller mentioned in a former part of this Es- 

* D'.ssut. IK Ebrietate, p. 41, 

R2 



it 



198 
say, supports the opinion. Buflbn says, "Apmm 
" the savages in the Isthmus of America, the 
" women throw their drunk husbands into the 
rivers, in order the more speedily to remove 
" the effects of intoxication*. " This practice 
among these savages was probably tried at first 
as a punishment, but having observed its good 
effects it was continued as a remedy. The cus- 
tom of ducking a drunken husband, common 
enough in different parts of this island, had most 
likely a similar origin. It is much to be lament, 
ed that our fair country-women do not exercise 
their privilege much oftener. But it is to be re- 
membered, that there are limits to the practice of 
cold immersion, whether local or general. The 
paroxysm of ebriety is to be distinguished by 
two stages, each exhibiting very different symp- 
toms. The first stage comprehends that train of 
symptoms which subsists during the stimulant 
power of the wine, such as heat of body, full 
pulse, flushed countenance, ike. The second 
stage includes those signs of debility 
which succeed ; the body is cold, the pulse 
weak, and the countenance pale. To the first 
stage, the cool regimen and evacuating plan are 

* Chap, on Infancy, vol, \\ 



199 
chiefly to be confined ; nay, it is likely the« 
would do much harm when the debility com- 
mences, for exposure to cold, and sleeping on 
damp ground after intoxication, have brought on 
many mortal diseases. It is under these cir- 
cumstances, I think, that the inflammatory affec- 
tions are produced ; the body being first weaken- 
ed and chilled, and then improperly brought near 
great fires, or into warm rooms, is all at once plied 
with every thing heating. 

An officer of my own acquaintance having 
often heard that cooling the head would relieve 
ebriety, when in the second stage of the par- 
oxysm, plunged his head into a bucket of cold 
water, as being the most effectual way, was soon 
after seized with phrenitis, or brain fever as it is 
vulgarly called, of which he died in a few days. 
Cold water applied to the head is not therefore a 
safe remedy at all times for the head- ache of 
drunkards. 

Persons addicted to ebriety are often found in 
the streets and highways, and sometimes in these 
situations exposed to the most inclement weather. 
Were they to remain long in that condition in se- 
vere frosts they must run great hazard of perish- 
ing ; for as soon as the second stage of the par- 
oxysm commences, the body becomes feeble. 



200 

the circulation of the biood languid, and the vital 
powers so exhausted that no great time would be 
required for the complete extinction of the living 
principle. It is to be suspected that most of the 
travellers who perish among snow, are of this 
description ; fool-hardy, under the false courage 
of dram-drinking, they sally out in the durk to 
explore their way, and quickly lose the road, 
from the change of objects, which falling snow, 
or snow already fallen, occasions. The dram in 
this situation of distress only helps to accelerate 
death, it assists in bringing on drowsiness and 
sleep, which leaves the body to be sooner weak- 
ened bv the cold, and the benighted traveller 
never wakes asain! 

If, however, signs of life appear when the per- 
son is found, great caution is necessary, lest, by 
attempting to recover him by strong spirits and 
carrying him too near a fire, you extinguish the 
smalt remains of the vital principle. Here all the 
means ;uid the precaution usually taken for the 
recovery of frost-bitten limbs will be necessary. 
The hands, arms, feet, and legs, may at first be 
rubbed with snow, or washed with cold water, 
then wiped dry, and the patient put to bed. The 
first thing to be given by the mouth, may be a 
little warm milk, and as the heat of the bodv .in- 



mi 

ggjeftscg, something more stimulant may be added. 
The great object to be attended to, is to cherish 
the slender remains of life by the gentlest stimuli, 
for the stronger would tend to destroy them. The 
future strength of the body is to be recruited by 
measures suited to the condition of the system, 
which need not to be detailed here. 

It might perhaps he considered by some as 
too great a compliment to instruct the drunkard 
how to correct morning head-ach and sick stom- 
ach. I have quoted before the lines of Horace which 
apply to this subject. Something relishing is usu- 
ally served up on this occasion, such as salted 
fish, . ham, salted, or smoke-dried meat, &c. 
Kitchen salt is a very grateful stimulus to a stom- 
ach weakened by excess. Dr. Cullen, in his 
Lectures on Dyspepsia, used to say, that he had 
found it prove anti-emetic when every thing else 
failed, 

u Si nocture* tibi noceat potatio vini, 

ki Em eodeir* mane bibas, Tnedicinafuerit." 

Samc-i or- 

Acidity, gastrodynia, &c. are to be relieved 
by anti-acids and stimulants. Dr. Home says, 
Jt Calor lecti, equitatio et elixir vitrioli, nau- 
■* seam hesterni Bacclii abigunt*." There arc. 



2G2 

perhaps; some who will prefer a morning ride, or 
other kinds of exercise in the open air or the cold 
bath, to all kinds of medicine. 

I have certainly known and heapd of instances 
of ebriety being quickly changed into sobriety 
by fear, danger, excessive joy or grief, acute pain 
and probably by whatever means sudden impres- 
sions are made on our sentient system. But as 
these means cannot easily be imitated by our art, 
it would tend to no useful purpose to offer any 
speculations on the mode of action. 

As a fit of ebriety leaves the body dull, languid 
weak, and prone to numerous diseases, great 
caution ought to be taken in exposing it in that 
state to marsh effluvium, to humidity, cold, or 
any kind of contagion, whether of fever or 
others. 



I shall now conclude this Essay with the fol- 
lowing admonition : Let all those persons, whose 
constitutions have any predisposition to the dis- 
eases mentioned in the catalogue, beware how 
they get drunk, or fall into the habit of intoxica- 






203 

tion. For this predisposition wilL hasten the ap 
proach of that disease, that must in the end ter- 
minate their existence. Such persons as Celsus 
finely advises, " Suspecta habere sua bona 
11 debere." 



—Not poppy normandragora, 

Nor all the drowsy syrups of the world, 

Shall ever med'eine thee to that sweet sleep 

Which thou ow'dst yesterday, Shakspeam:-. 



THE END 



A. FINLE\, 

South East Corner of Chesnut and Fourth Streets, 
PHILADELPHIA. 

Has constantly on hand a valuable and extensive collection of 

MISCELLANEOUS, CLASSICAL 8c MEDICAL BOOKS, 

He has recently published 

Charles Bell's Engravings of the Arteries, colour- 
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Cheyneon Croup. 75 Cents. 

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]VL D. F. R. S. &c. with 15 Engravings. Also, 

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